2-- 'Ll,  2.3  . 

LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON.  N.  J. 


Presented  by 


\J\rwar\  xSneo\o<^ CcA  ‘Derr nn<^r^Yo\ , 

BV  6  60  .V3  v 


Vance 


««2- 


' 


Being  a  Preacher 


By  James  I.  Vance,  D.D. 

Being  a  Preacher.  A  Study  of  the  Claims 


of  the  Christian  Ministry . net  $1.25 

In  the  Breaking  of  the  Bread.  A  Volume 
of  Communion  Addresses . $1.25 

The  Silver  on  the  Iron  Cross.  A  Record 

of  Experiences  Overseas.  i2mo,  cloth  .  .  .  net  75. 


The  Life  of  Service.  Some  Christian  Doc¬ 
trines  from  Paul’s  Experiences  in  the  Epistle  to  the 


Romans.  i2mo,  cloth . net  $1.25 

Royal  Manhood. . net  #1.25 


“  An  inspiring  book,  a  strong,  forcible,  eloquent 
presentation  of  the  characteristics  of  true  manhood.” 

—  1'he  Living  Church. 

Tendency  :  The  Effect  of  Trend  and  Drift  in  ! 
the  Development  of  Life .  net  $1.00 

The  Eternal  in  Man.  i2mo,  cloth,  net  51.00 

“  An  appeal  to  the  dignity  of  manhood,  a  call  for 
the  awakening  of  the  highest  in  humanity.” 

— Newark  Evening  News. 

The  Rise  of  a  Soul.  A  Stimulus  to  Personal 
Progress  and  Development.  i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00  ; 

A  Young  Man’s  Make-Up.  i 

i2mo,  cloth . net  75c. 

A  study  of  the  things  that  make  or  unmake  a 
young  man. 

TheYoung  Man  Four-Square,  in  Busi¬ 
ness,  Society,  Politics,  and  Religion. 
i2mo,  cloth . net  50c.  , 

Life’s  Terminals.  I2m0,  boards  .  .  net  35c. 

A  clarion-noted  call  to  conscience  and  Christian 
unity. 

.....  -  .  - - - -  — .  . . . . 


JAMES  SPRUNT  LECTURES  1923 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  Richmond ,  Virginia, 


Being  a  Preacher 

A  Study  of  the  Claims  of 
the  Christian  Ministry 


By 

JAMES  I.  VANCE,  D.  D.,  LL.D. 

Author  of  "In  the  Breaking  of  the  Bread,**  " The  Rise 
of  a  Soul,*'  "Tendency,*  "The  Life  of  Service," 
"The  Young  Man  Foursquare ,**  "The  Eternal 
in  Man,"  "The  College  of  Apostles,"  etc . 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1923,  by 

FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London :  2 1  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh :  75  Princes  Street 


To  my  classmates  in  the  old 
Hampden  Sidney  days ,  when 
the  Via  Sacra  was  a  quiet 
walk ,  with  the  church  at  one 
end  and  the  library  at  the  other 
and  the  Unseen  Presence  all 
the  way 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/beingpreacherstuOOvanc 


Foreword 


WHILE  the  chapters  which  follow  were 
delivered  first  to  a  group  of  students 
for  the  ministry,  they  were  prepared  in 
the  hope  that  they  might  reach  those  who  have  not 
yet  settled  the  question  of  their  life-work,  and  lead 
them  seriously  to  consider  becoming  preachers. 

This  is  not  the  whole  aim  of  the  book,  however. 
There  has  been  some  restlessness  in  recent  years 
in  the  ranks  of  the  ministry.  Some  have  turned 
aside  from  the  holy  calling  to  engage  in  a  form  of 
secular  activity;  like  the  disciples  after  the  cruci¬ 
fixion,  when  Peter  said:  “  I  go  a-fishing,”  and  they 
replied:  “We  also  go  with  thee.” 

It  may  be  that  this  restlessness  is  a  part  of  the 
aftermath  of  the  World  War;  but  whatever  its 
cause,  it  is  to  be  deplored. 

To  such  men,  the  writer  would  like  to  bring 
back  the  glory  of  the  first  hour  when  “  they  forsook 
all  and  followed  him.” 

And  to  all,  whether  ordained  ministers,  or  can¬ 
didates  in  training,  or  young  men  considering  the 
choice  of  a  life-work, — to  all,  whether  grouped  un¬ 
der  pulpit  or  pew,  these  chapters  are  meant  to  be 
an  effort  to  present  the  unsurpassed  opportunity  to 
live  a  life  offered  by  the  ministry,  and  the  worth  to 
God  and  man  of  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel. 

J.  I.  V. 

Nashville,  Tenn. 

9 


Contents 


I. 

A  Poor  Business,  but  a  Great  Call¬ 
ing  ...... 

13 

II. 

The  Preacher  and  a  Bankrupt  World 

28 

III. 

The  Summons  to  Service  . 

42 

IV. 

The  Preacher  and  His  Message 

tn 

00 

V. 

The  Man  Behind  the  Message  . 

77 

VI. 

The  Preacher  in  Action  . 

100 

VII. 

The  Drab  and  Gold  in  the  Great 
Calling . 

125 

VIII. 

The  World’s  Greatest  Preacher 

152 

II 


A  POOR  BUSINESS,  BUT  A  GREAT 

CALLING 


PREACHING  is  a  poor  business,”  a  chance 
acquaintance  in  the  person  of  a  minister 
from  Continental  Europe  said  to  me  one 
day  on  an  American  railroad  train.  He  was  “  do¬ 
ing  ”  the  United  States.  He  was  planning  to  go 
home  and  write  a  book  giving  his  impressions 
of  America.  He  asked  many  questions,  seeking  to 
accumulate  material  for  his  forthcoming  literary 
venture.  He  had  put  me  through  his  question¬ 
naire  on  preachers  and  the  Church,  being  especially 
curious  to  know  what  salaries  were  paid  the  clergy 
in  the  United  States.  He  closed  the  conversation 
with  a  sigh,  as  he  said:  “In  Europe,  preaching  is 
a  poor  business.  The  pay  is  small.” 

It  is  a  poor  business  anywhere,  measured  by  the 
pay,  by  the  financial  returns,  by  the  cold  cash  to  be 
^nade  out  of  it.  Measured  by  this  standard,  the 
gospel  ministry  is  without  charms.  The  preacher 
is  in  a  poor  business,  whether  on  Fifth  Avenue  or 
in  a  prairie  shack,  whether  in  impoverished  Europe 
or  among  American  plutocrats.  He  who  turns 
preacher  to  earn  a  living  has  been  misled,  but  he 
who  comes  in  to  live  a  life  has  scored. 

*3 


14 


A  POOE  BUSINESS 


A  Poor  Business 

There  is  not  much  money  in  preaching  the  Gos¬ 
pel.  The  salary  of  the  average  minister  is  less  than 
a  thousand  dollars  a  year.  There  are  men  who  can 
neither  read  nor  write,  but  who  earn  at  common 
labour  a  larger  wage  than  is  paid  to  many  an 
earnest,  consecrated,  hard-working,  well-equipped, 
and  college-bred  preacher  of  the  Gospel.  Preachers 
and  teachers  are  notoriously  underpaid.  Any  ef¬ 
fort  on  their  part  to  increase  their  stipend  is  likely 
to  be  misunderstood.  Occasionally  a  preacher  is 
brave  enough  to  face  the  problem  as  did  the  pastor 
of  the  leading  church  of  his  denomination  in  one 
of  our  big  American  cities.  He  called  his  officers 
together  and  told  them  that  he  could  not  live  de¬ 
cently  on  what  they  were  paying  him,  that  they 
must  either  increase  his  salary  or  allow  him  to 
retire  to  a  cheaper  field.  The  average  preacher 
would  rather  starve  than  discredit  his  work  by 
seeming  to  love  money.  American  churches  may 
not  be  as  much  to  blame  as  those  of  Continental 
Europe  in  this  matter  of  the  preacher’s  stipend. 
However,  when  ability  is  taken  into  consideration 
they  cannot  escape  blame.  From  the  standpoint 
of  the  wages  paid,  the  holy  calling  is  a  poor  busi¬ 
ness. 

It  requires  a  long  and  rather  expensive  course 
of  preparation.  The  preacher  must  be  educated. 
He  should  be  a  college  graduate,  and  then  spend 
three  years  in  some  theological  seminary.  He  must 


A  GREAT  CALLING 


15 


dress  and  live  on  a  scale  that  will  not  humiliate  his 
parish,  nor  lead  the  godless  to  conclude  that  the 
saints  are  parsimonious  in  the  provision  they  make 
for  the  servant  of  the  Lord. 

The  duties  of  the  ministry  are  exhausting  and 
laborious.  No  work  is  more  nerve-exhausting. 
The  preacher’s  day  is  twenty-four  hours  long,  and 
his  week  lasts  seven  full  days.  Sunday  is  his  hard¬ 
est  day.  He  must  do  far  more  than  unearth  a  time- 
stained  manuscript  and  “  drop  it  down  on  the  peo¬ 
ple’s  heads  two  times  each  day  in  seven.”  To  be 
sure  he  sometimes  gets  a  vacation.  But  for  that, 
he  must  go  to  the  wall. 

A  Jewish  tailor  who  was  rather  proud  of  his 
assortment  of  styles  urged  my  wife  to  have  her 
preacher-husband  visit  his  shop  and  look  over  his 
goods.  She  said  she  would  tell  me,  but  she  feared 
I  might  be  too  busy  to  come.  “  Busy?  ”  he  said, 
lifting  his  hands  and  his  eyebrows.  “  I  thought 
he  was  occupied  only  two  hours  in  the  week.”  And 
that  is  a  popular  conception  of  what  a  preacher 
has  to  do.  There  are  preachers  who  merit  such 
a  characterization.  A  lumberman  in  a  mountain 
camp  in  Western  North  Carolina,  finding  day  la¬ 
bour  irksome,  told  his  friends  that  he  felt  called  to 
preach.  He  emigrated  to  Virginia,  where  in  a 
few  months  he  became  the  pastor  of  a  little  church 
of  a  “  persuasion  ”  which  need  not  be  named. 
Returning  for  a  brief  visit  to  the  lumber  camp, 
he  was  asked  by  his  old  friends  how  he  liked  being 


16 


A  POOR  BUSINESS 


a  preacher.  “  Fine ! ”  he  said.  “  I  never  expect  to 
work  any  more !  ”  But  a  man  who  deserves  the 
name  of  minister  will  find  his  hands  full. 

The  ability  demanded  for  the  making  of  a 
preacher  is  of  a  high  order.  He  must  possess  a 
pleasant  personality,  and  must  be  able  to  meet  and 
mingle  with  all  classes  and  be  liked  by  all.  He 
must  have  common  sense  without  which  all  sense 
is  nonsense,  business  sense,  book  sense,  and  non¬ 
sense.  He  must  be  a  good  mixer.  He  must  pos¬ 
sess  initiative  and  energy.  He  must  be  a  master 
of  assemblies  and  understand  how  to  handle,  both 
in  public  and  in  private,  all  kinds  of  people,  espe¬ 
cially  eccentrics.  He  must  be  able  to  preach  three 
lively,  interesting,  instructive  and  eloquent  dis¬ 
courses  a  week.  He  must  draw  a  crowd  and  make 
daily  as  many  visits  as  the  average  doctor.  All 
this  and  more  than  all  this  he  must  do  for  his 
meagre  stipend,  and  frequently  he  must  not  only 
earn  but  collect  that  before  he  can  possess  it.  I 
am  speaking  out  of  experience.  In  my  first  charge 
the  good  people  undertook  to  pay  their  pastor  eight 
hundred  dollars  and  a  house.  The  house  was  there, 
but  the  remainder  of  the  stipend,  like  some  of  our 
railroad  trains,  ran  late.  The  treasurer  was  al¬ 
ways  good  enough  Monday  morning  to  let  his  pas¬ 
tor  have  the  collections  of  the  preceding  Sabbath. 
This  sustained  hope  until  additional  help  arrived. 
And  with  all  this,  every  church  expects  to  have  for 
its  pastor  a  pulpiteer,  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude. 


A  GEEAT  CALLING 


17 


Preaching  is  a  poor  business.  It  is  about  the  poor¬ 
est  business  in  the  world. 

A  Great  Calling 

But  preaching  is  a  great  calling.  The  difference 
between  a  business  and  a  calling  is  that  in  a  busi¬ 
ness  one  is  trying  to  earn  a  living,  and  in  a  calling 
one  is  trying  to  live  a  life.  In  a  business  the  effort 
is  to  see  how  much  money  you  can  make.  In  a 
calling  the  effort  is  to  see  how  much  good  you  can 
do.  In  a  business  one  is  trying  to  see  how  much 
he  can  get  out  of  the  world.  In  a  calling  he  is 
trying  to  see  how  much  he  can  put  into  the  world. 
In  a  business  he  is  thinking  of  profits  and  divi¬ 
dends.  In  a  calling  he  is  thinking  of  service.  In 
a  business  he  is  building  his  house  on  the  sand,  and 
when  the  storm  breaks  it  falls.  But  in  a  calling  he 
is  building  on  the  rock  and  he  can  face  all  storms 
unafraid.  In  business  one  leaves  all  that  he  has 
behind  him  when  he  dies,  and  is  a  pauper  forever. 
In  a  calling  he  takes  everything  with  him,  and  is 
rich  forever. 

Of  course  one  may  make  his  business  his  calling. 
He  may  sell  goods  and  manufacture  ploughs  and 
run  a  farm  and  handle  a  railroad  and  write  insur¬ 
ance  and  mine  coal  and  transform  raw  materials 
into  useful  products  for  the  glory  of  God.  Then 
his  business  becomes  his  calling.  Then  his  effort  is 
not  to  see  how  much  money  he  can  make  but  how 
much  good  he  can  do,  how  much  service  he  can 


18 


A  POOE  BUSINESS 


render.  This  lifts  business  to  its  highest  level. 
It  is  where  the  day  labourer  at  a  meagre  wage 
climbs  among  the  stars,  for  it  is  here  that  man  be¬ 
comes  a  “  worker  together  with  God.” 

Christ’s  kingdom  needs  people  in  all  the  walks  of 
life.  Preachers  are  not  the  only  people  God  calls. 
He  calls  bankers  and  lawyers  and  doctors  and 
editors  and  stenographers  and  men  of  affairs  and 
wage-earners  to  serve  Him,  to  dedicate  their  work 
to  His  glory.  One  day  a  man  was  shot  down  on 
the  streets  in  Chicago  in  a  cowardly  assault.  He 
lingered,  suffering  great  pain  all  day  and  died  with 
the  day.  His  preacher  was  at  his  side  all  the 
while,  and  said:  “  Whether  you  are  to  go  or  stay, 
can  you  say:  ‘  O  God,  thy  will  be  done  ’  ?  ”  With 
a  quiet  smile,  he  replied:  “  Of  course  I  can.  I  have 
no  use  for  my  life  but  to  serve  the  will  of  God.” 
This  is  the  only  way  for  a  Christian  man  to  con¬ 
sider  his  work,  whatever  his  vocation  may  be.  The 
supreme  question  for  him  to  ask  is:  Plow  can  I 
best  invest  my  life  for  God’s  glory?  When  one 
reaches  that  high  point,  light  breaks  and  he  begins 
to  discover  the  particular  thing  God  has  for  him 
to  do  in  the  world. 

Never  until  he  makes  this  discovery  will  he  be 
satisfied.  There  are  men  who  have  found  their 
business  but  missed  their  calling.  They  are  rest- 
less.  They  prosper,  but  are  not  satisfied.  Some 
of  them  drift  from  one  thing  to  another,  and  won¬ 
der  why  they  are  so  restless.  They  have  not  found 


A  GREAT  CALLING 


19 


a  certain  thing  in  life  they  are  fitted  to  do  best. 
There  is  also  some  certain  thing  in  which  they  can 
best  glorify  God.  The  two  are  usually  identical^ 
and  when  one  discovers  what  it  is,  his  work  be¬ 
comes  a  joy  and  life  a  success.  The  great  thing  is 
to  find  this.  It  is  discovered  to  man  by  his  Master, 
and  the  discovery  comes  to  those  who  make  a  full 
surrender  and  who  wait  on  the  altar  stairs  of 
prayer. 


The  Gospel  Ministry 

While  one  may  make  any  business  a  calling,  the 
greatest  calling  is  the  gospel  ministry.  There  is  no 
investment  of  life  that  counts  more  for  God's 
glory  and  man’s  good  than  this.  There  is  no  call¬ 
ing  that  offers  such  opportunity  for  high  and  dis¬ 
interested  service,  none  that  demands  such  sacri¬ 
fices  and  yields  such  poor  material  compensation, 
but  in  the  end  piles  up  such  reward. 

The  preacher  ministers  to  the  spiritual  in  human 
life.  Man  is  essentially  a  spirit.  His  deepest 
moods  are  religious.  “  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his 
heart,  so  is  he.”  The  preacher  deals  not  with  man 
merely  as  a  social  unit,  as  something  having  a 
reputation,  seeking  fame,  possessing  tastes,  swept 
by  moods,  holding  views.  He  deals  with  the  man 
himself. 

The  preacher  has  a  line  of  eternal  values.  He 
offers  salvation.  He  presents  that  which  puts 
fallen  character  on  its  feet.  He  handles  the 


20 


A  POOR  BUSINESS 


dynamic  current  that  changes  character  and  fixes 
destiny.  It  is  something  to  build  a  house,  but  it  is 
greater  to  build  a  character.  It  is  something  to 
cultivate  a  farm,  to  develop  natural  resources,  to 
open  mines  and  navigate  rivers;  but  to  improve 
people  is  far  greater.  It  is  something  to  found 
governments  and  enact  laws,  but  to  produce  citizens 
who  respect  laws,  who  fear  God,  who  stand  four¬ 
square  and  toil  to  establish  in  time  that  “  king¬ 
dom  that  cometh  not  with  observation  ”  is  to  be  at 
work  on  the  biggest  task  open  to  mortals. 

The  preacher  has  a  remedy  for  sin.  Sin  is  the 
trouble  with  the  world, — not  wages,  not  bad  laws, 
not  sectarianism,  not  alcohol,  but  sin.  The 
preacher  has  the  cure  for  sin.  It  is  something  to 
cure  the  body,  to  fight  typhoid  and  smallpox  and 
cholera,  but  it  is  greater  to  fight  sin,  to  be  a  doctor 
to  the  soul.  To  save  a  soul  from  death  is  sublime. 
It  is  worth  enduring  poverty  and  contempt,  hunger 
and  cold,  and  all  trial,  to  turn  one  soul  from  the 
dark  to  the  light,  to  lead  one  wayward  prodigal 
from  the  far  country  back  to  the  Father’s  house. 

The  preacher  has  the  message  that  will  trans¬ 
form  society,  that  will  cure  social  ills,  that  will 
settle  disputes  between  labour  and  capital,  that  will 
end  war  and  heal  race  hatred,  and  abolish  national 
suspicions  and  antagonisms  and  make  men  broth¬ 
ers.  He  has  the  Golden  Rule  and  the  power  to 
make  it  more  than  a  maxim.  World  upheavals 
and  social  unrest  are  not  the  despair  of  the  Chris- 


A  GBEAT  CALLING 


21 


tian  minister.  They  open  the  door.  They  create 
a  market  for  him.  He  has  a  remedy  and  the  only 
remedy  for  a  sick  world.  If  disarmament  is  ever 
to  come,  men  must  first  arm,  and  the  armour  they 
must  wear  is  none  other  than  that  of  a  Christian 
soldier.  The  treaty  that  is  not  backed  up  by  the 
faithful  teaching  and  practicing  of  the  principles 
of  Christ  will  soon  be  found  to  be  but  a  mere  scrap 
of  paper. 

More  than  any  other  man,  the  preacher  is  mak¬ 
ing  a  better  world.  It  is  his  business  to  make  the 
earth  a  decent  place  to  live  in.  Society  dreams  of 
new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  but  how  is  the  dream 
to  come  true?  How  is  the  vision  to  be  translated 
into  reality?  The  gospel  preacher  is  the  man  of 
all  men  who  holds  the  key  to  the  future.  He  is 
the  prophet  of  the  only  social  order  that  will  ever 
make  human  life  satisfied.  He  is  not  making  his 
country  the  richest,  the  most  powerful,  the  most 
enterprising.  He  is  just  making  it  the  best,  the 
securest,  the  happiest,  the  most  enduring. 

This  is  the  work  of  a  preacher,  of  an  humble 
and  unpretentious  preacher  of  the  Gospel.  His 
stipend  may  be  a  mere  pittance,  barely  enough  to 
keep  soul  and  body  together.  His  family  may  need 
to  practice  the  sternest  economy  to  maintain  ap¬ 
pearances  before  a  congregation  that  is  often  more 
critical  than  considerate.  He  may  never  be  known 
beyond  the  confines  of  his  little  parish.  He  may  be 
neither  eloquent  nor  profound.  But  he  is  a  man 


22 


A  POOR  BUSINESS 


/ 


who  has  harnessed  his  ability  to  the  greatest  call¬ 
ing  on  earth  and  is  moving  the  world  up-hill. 

The  Call 

It  is  a  calling  which  every  young  man  should  at 
least  seriously  consider.  What  shall  I  do  with  my 
life  ?  is  the  biggest  question  that  faces  youth.  Why 
not  invest  it  in  the  gospel  ministry  ?  Why  not  be  a 
preacher?  Of  course,  if  you  are  looking  for 
merely  a  business,  it  will  not  interest  you.  But  if 
you  are  seeking  a  calling,  it  is  worthy  of  your  most 
careful  consideration.  If  you  have  made  up  your 
mind  to  drop  down  into  nothing  but  a  money- 
grubber,  the  gospel  ministry  will  have  no  charms 
for  you.  But  I  would  remind  you  that  the  money 
road  is  strewn  with  wrecks.  When  will  we  learn 
what  a  cheap  and  worthless  thing  money  is?  It 
cannot  buy  happiness.  Some  of  the  loneliest  peo¬ 
ple  in  the  world  are  those  who  have  amassed  vast 
fortunes,  but  who  instead  of  owning  what  they 
have,  are  owned. 

If  you  are  out  not  to  earn  a  living,  but  to  live  a 
life,  think  of  being  a  preacher.  Perhaps  you  are 
saying  that  you  cannot  preach,  that  you  have  never 
been  called,  that  you  have  never  felt  that  myste¬ 
rious  moving  in  your  soul  which  the  old  preachers 
talk  about,  but  which  nobody  seems  to  understand. 
What  is  a  call  ?  It  is  not  an  uncanny  sort  of  thing. 
It  is  not  a  ghostly  visitor.  It  is  not  a  miracle  por¬ 
tent.  It  is  not  a  sweeping  down  of  the  supematu- 


A  GREAT  CALLING 


23 


ral  until  the  soul  is  seized  and  mastered  in  some  fine 
frenzy  and  surrenders  to  the  spell  of  a  mood  of 
mysticism  that  would  better  be  spelled  with  an  “  i  ” 
than  a  “  y.” 

Neither  is  a  call  the  projection  of  life  along  the 
line  of  least  resistance;  because  one  has  tried  a 
number  of  other  things  and  failed,  it  does  not  fol¬ 
low  infallibly  that  the  Lord  is  calling  him  to  preach. 
The  ministry  is  not  a  slag  dump.  It  is  not  the  last 
resort  for  stuff  that  has  been  found  of  no  value 
anywhere.  The  ancient  custom  of  noble  families 
to  schedule  for  holy  orders  a  stupid  son  who 
seemed  fit  for  nothing  else  has  long  since  been  ta¬ 
booed.  Only  the  best  will  do  for  the  biggest  call¬ 
ing  open  to  mortals. 

Neither  is  a  young  man  to  conclude  that  the  man 
from  Macedonia  is  shouting  to  him  across  the 
Golden  Horn  and  saying:  “  Come  over  and  help 
us,”  because  somebody  has  whispered  in  his  ear 
that  he  has  the  gift  of  oratory.  It  takes  more  than 
an  orator  to  make  a  preacher.  Besides,  oratory  is 
more  than  declamation.  Some  brains  are  needed, 
and  back  of  brains,  convictions  that  are  hot  enough 
ever  and  again  to  flare  into  flame. 

In  my  native  town  there  was  a  lawsuit.  The 
opposing  counsel  were  two  young  lawyers  who  had 
but  recently  been  admitted  to  the  bar.  One  had 
the  gift  of  gab  and  was  a  fluent  declaimer.  He 
made  a  beautiful  speech  which  won  applause  from 
his  friends  who  had  come  to  hear  his  effort.  The 


24 


A  POOR  BUSINESS 


other  was  a  stutterer  who  submitted  his  case  with¬ 
out  argument.  The  court  awarded  the  verdict  to 
the  stutterer’s  client,  whereupon  his  lawyer  said  to 
the  opposing  counsel:  “  D-d-do-don’ t  you  w-wish 
you  couldn’t  talk,  too  ?  ” 

To  be  sure  it  has  pleased  the  Lord  “  by  the  fool¬ 
ishness  of  preaching  to  save  them  that  believe.” 
But  preaching  is  more  than  speaking.  One  is  not 
to  be  excluded  if  he  possess  the  gift  of  oratory, 
but  the  kingdom  of  God  needs  more  than  pulpi¬ 
teers,  as  many  a  church  has  learned  through  sad 
experience. 

But  true  oratory  is  not  flamboyant  declamation. 
It  is  just  talking.  It  is  telling  your  story  so  that 
people  can  understand  what  you  mean.  The  truth 
merely  needs  to  be  told.  It  needs  a  voice.  John 
the  Baptist  was  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness. 
Moses  said:  “O  Lord,  I  am  not  eloquent.”  But 
God  said:  “  Certainly  I  will  be  with  thee.”  He 
says  as  much  to  every  man  called  to  be  a  preacher. 
God  becomes  the  preacher’s  mouthpiece  and  wis¬ 
dom,  and  it  is  wonderful  what  He  can  do  with  a 
man  of  ordinary  gifts. 

The  preacher  is  a  man  with  a  message  rather 
than  a  man  with  a  good  delivery.  Even  Balaam’s 
ass  could  preach  when  he  had  something  to  say, 
and  the  preacher  who  is  minus  a  message  is  worth 
less  to  the  kingdom  than  was  that  poor  beast. 

In  the  Bible  the  call  to  the  gospel  ministry  pre¬ 
sents  itself  in  various  ways.  It  sometimes  regis- 


A  GEEAT  CALLING 


25 


ters  itself  as  an  overmastering  conviction.  This  is 
the  way  it  came  to  Paul,  who  said:  “  Woe  is  me  if 
I  preach  not  the  gospel.”  He  felt  that  he  would 
be  damned  if  he  did  not  preach.  His  soul  was  in¬ 
volved.  His  salvation  was  at  stake  for  time  and 
for  eternity.  There  are  those  who  have  felt  this 
kind  of  a  call,  but  not  all.  This  great  conviction 
is  not  essential.  It  is  splendid  to  have  it.  It  is 
something  that  may  come  later  as  the  years  pass 
and  one  digs  deeper  into  his  work  and  gets  that 
experience  which  comes  from  a  life  of  service. 
But  no  one  should  hold  back  because  he  lacks  it  at 
the  start,  nor  be  greatly  cast  down  because  he  lacks 
it  by  the  way.  There  are  differences  in  tempera¬ 
ment,  and  because  a  young  man  is  unable  to  say 
with  Paul:  “  Woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel,” 
let  him  not  conclude  that  he  is  without  a  call.  It 
may  come  to  him  another  way. 

Sometimes  it  is  a  vision  of  need.  Thus  the  call 
came  to  Isaiah.  God  said:  “  Whom  shall  I  send 
and  who  will  go  for  us  ?  ”  Someone  was  needed. 
Isaiah  stepped  to  the  front  and  said:  “  Here  am  I, 
Lord,  send  me.”  This  is  the  kind  of  call  the  Sa¬ 
viour  is  suggesting  when  He  points  to  the  fields 
that  are  white  unto  the  harvest,  and  bids  His  dis¬ 
ciples  pray  for  labourers  to  be  thrust  forth  into  the 
harvest.  It  is  a  picture  of  need  and  of  urgency 
built  on  need.  The  need  for  preachers  to-day  is 
unprecedented.  Every  other  vocation  is  crowded. 
The  ministry  is  calling  and  clamouring  for  recruits. 


26 


A  POOR  BUSINESS 


Every  denomination  has  vacant  pulpits.  In  1921 
more  preachers  died  than  were  graduated  from 
theological  seminaries.  Little  can  be  done  when  a 
church  becomes  vacant  but  to  rob  a  sister  church  of 
its  pastor.  Young  men  are  needed  in  the  sublimest 
calling  open  to  mortals.  This  need  summons.  It 
sounds  like  a  challenge.  It  is  eloquent  with  ur¬ 
gency.  It  makes  its  demands  on  the  young  manhood 
of  America.  Down  from  the  morning  of  the 
twentieth  century  the  voice  of  God  calls:  “  Whom 
shall  I  send  and  who  will  go  for  us  ”  ? 

Sometimes  the  call  is  just  a  sense  of  opportunity. 
This  was  the  way  it  came  to  most  of  Christ’s  dis¬ 
ciples.  Jesus  stood  and  called:  “  Come  ye  after 
me  and  I  will  make  ye  to  become  fishers  of  men.” 
Suddenly  to  those  Galilean  fishermen  life  widened 
out.  Here  was  their  chance  to  live  a  world  life. 
It  is  the  chance  God  is  ever  bringing  to  men.  The 
gospel  ministry  offers  the  opportunity  to  plunge  into 
the  world  currents,  to  get  out  of  the  eddies,  to  have 
a  hand  in  building  the  new  earth.  The  preacher  is 
not  simply  selling  cars  or  cattle  or  land,  but  creat¬ 
ing  civilization.  He  is  saving  souls.  He  is  shap¬ 
ing  destinies.  He  is  comforting  sorrow  and  lead¬ 
ing  the  lost  back  to  God.  If  he  is  doing  this,  what 
does  it  matter  whether  he  make  money  or  not, 
whether  fame  shout  his  name? 

“  The  Master  praises, 

What  are  men  ?  ” 


A  GEEAT  CALLING 


27 


Is  it  too  much  to  ask  the  young  men  of  America 
carefully  to  consider  this  form  of  life  investment? 
What  shall  one  do  with  his  life?  What  shall  he 
consider  in  settling  the  question  of  his  life-work? 
Is  he  to  seek  a  business  or  a  calling?  Is  he  to 
think  of  the  salary  he  is  to  get  or  the  service  he 
may  render?  Is  he  seeking  a  soft  bed  or  has  he 
felt  the  spell  of  a  cross? 

Are  there  not  enough  young  men  in  America 
who  are  willing  to  be  mustered  into  the  service  of 
God  and  humanity  in  the  gospel  ministry  ?  “  How 
shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher?  ”  is  a  question 
that  was  sent  ringing  into  the  life  of  the  greatest 
city  on  earth  centuries  ago.  It  is  sounding  still. 
It  is  a  big  thing  to  give  a  million  dollars  to  the 
kingdom.  It  is  a  vastly  bigger  thing  to  give  a  life, 
and  this  bigger  gift  of  a  life  is  within  the  reach  of 
one  whose  earthly  possessions  may  be  no  more  than 
those  of  the  lad  by  the  sea  long  ago. 


II 


THE  PREACHER  AND  A  BANKRUPT 

WORLD 

IN  the  first  chapter  of  Romans,  Paul  is  gazing 
at  a  world  on  fire.  The  conflagration  burns 
to  heaven.  It  threatens  to  consume  hope  it¬ 
self.  Civilization  is  on  the  rocks.  Society  is 
bankrupt,  its  credit  is  gone,  and  its  treasury  is 
empty. 

There  is  no  darker  picture  than  this  which  Paul 
paints  in  his  letter  to  the  people  living  in  the 
world's  capital,  and  who  saw  daily  with  their  own 
eyes  the  truth  of  what  he  said.  He  seems  to  make 
an  inventory  of  the  world’s  insolvency.  He  names 
one  after  another  the  things  which  have  brought 
about  the  breakdown  of  civilization.  Swiftly  he 
sketches  the  ruin  of  the  race. 

He  says  the  world  is  bankrupt  because  it  has 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  plunderers,  of  ungodly  and 
unrighteous  men,  who  by  their  wickedness  hinder 
truth,  and  against  whose  impious  deeds  the  wrath 
of  God  is  loosed.  It  is  not  because  these  robbers 
of  human  hope  and  happiness  are  ignorant,  for 
whatever  is  to  be  known  of  God  has  been  made 

28 


PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD  29 


plain  to  them.  Their  infamy  is  that  they  treat 
truth  with  contempt.  They  do  not  care.  They 
defy  the  Almighty,  and  laugh  to  scorn  His  ever¬ 
lasting  power  and  Divine  being. 

He  characterizes  them  as  a  lot  of  fools  absorbed 
with  futile  speculations  until  their  ignorant  minds 
grow  dark  as  night,  and  their  evil  hearts  are  black 
as  hell.  These  are  the  cattle  who  have  climbed 
into  power.  These  are  the  men  who  are  rushing 
the  world  to  its  doom. 

They  have  gone  so  far  as  to  begin  to  make  gods 
for  themselves.  They  have  exchanged  the  glory 
of  the  immortal  God  for  the  likeness  of  mortal 
man.  They  have  gone  further  than  this,  and  de¬ 
graded  the  Deity  to  a  level  with  the  beasts,  for 
sometimes  their  god  is  a  bird,  and  sometimes  a  dog 
or  a  cow,  and  sometimes  a  snake. 

It  is  not  strange  that  such  people  live  like  ani¬ 
mals,  and  that,  casting  all  restraints  aside,  they 
give  themselves  over  to  an  orgy  of  sexual  vice. 
For  people  are  never  better  than  their  gods.  The 
world  fills  up  with  moral  perverts.  Mankind  be¬ 
comes  a  race  of  degenerates.  Lust  flames  and 
every  reprobate  instinct  has  the  right  of  way  until 
Paul  says:  “  They  are  filled  with  all  unrighteous¬ 
ness,  fornication,  wickedness,  covetousness,  mali¬ 
ciousness,  being  full  of  envy,  murder,  debate,  de¬ 
ceit,  malignity;  whisperers,  backbiters,  haters  of 
God,  despiteful,  proud,  boasters,  inventors  of  evil 
things,  disobedient  to  parents,  without  understand- 


30  PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD 


mg,  covenant  breakers,  without  natural  affection, 
implacable,  unmerciful,  who,  knowing  the  judg¬ 
ment  of  God,  that  they  which  commit  such  things 
are  worthy  of  death,  not  only  do  the  same,  but 
have  pleasure  in  them  that  do  them.” 

Could  there  be  a  darker  picture  than  this  ?  It  is 
a  bankrupt  world.  Who  would  want  to  live  in 
such  a  world?  Hell  has  run  over,  and  inundated 
earth  with  its  filth. 

The  World  Still  Bankrupt 

It  is  still  a  bankrupt  world.  One  must  say  of 
the  twentieth  century  what  Paul  said  of  the  first. 
The  picture  might  be  changed  a  bit  here  and  there, 
for  the  world  has  grown  older  in  sin  and  misery, 
and  is  seamed  deeper  with  lines  of  despair.  But 
the  title  of  the  picture  remains  the  same.  It  is  still 
a  bankrupt  world.  Look  at  it. 

There  is  Russia.  Can  it  be  possible  that  such 
folly  has  gone  on  under  the  world’s  eyes  in  the 
twentieth  century,  or  is  it  a  nightmare,  a  bad 
dream?  A  nation  has  been  plundered,  assassi¬ 
nated,  a  hundred  million  people  in  less  than  five 
years  have  been  stripped  and  brought  to  beggary, 
with  the  world  standing  by  and  watching  the  flames 
burn,  but  not  daring  to  fight  the  fire ;  and  in  every 
nation  there  smoulders  that  which  has  destroyed 
Russia.  It  waits  but  the  chance  to  break  into 
flame.  Once  lit,  it  will  bum  down  and  consume 
human  happiness  and  hope. 


PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD  31 


There  are  the  debts  that  have  unloaded  on  war- 
mad  nations  until  credit  is  gone,  until  money  has 
become  worthless  chaff,  sheaves  and  piles  of  paper 
camouflaged  with  promises  that  can  never  be  kept. 
Place  Austria  alongside  of  Russia.  Her  plight  is 
really  worse.  Her  sun  is  setting  never  to  rise,  and 
her  famed  capital  has  become  a  city  whose  gaiety 
is  gone  and  whose  citizens  are  stripped  and  gaunt 
with  despair. 

There  is  the  strife  and  jealousy  and  suspicion 
which  declines  to  subside,  and  which  is  not  only 
threatening,  but  producing  new  wars.  One  would 
think  man  had  learned  his  lesson,  that  the  beggared 
peoples  had  enough,  that  the  world  was  cured 
forever  of  the  folly  of  war.  But  there  is  nothing 
to  encourage  such  a  dream. 

The  League  of  Nations  to  which  many  of  the 
forward-looking  men  and  women  of  the  world  had 
tied  their  hope  sleeps  in  its  grave,  slain  by  the  hand 
of  the  one  nation  the  world  thought  would  be 
stoutest  in  its  defense,  and  over  its  grave  the  inso¬ 
lent  Turk  spits  on  the  American  flag.  Who  be¬ 
lieves  that  the  Turk  would  have  dared  undertake  a 
war  for  the  recovery  of  Constantinople  had  the 
League  of  Nations  been  ratified  by  the  United 
States  Senate? 

Then  there  are  the  tattered  remnants  of  peoples 
who  once  dared  to  hope.  Men,  women,  and  chil¬ 
dren  are  starving  to  death.  They  have  nothing 
with  which  to  sustain  and  succour  physical  life. 


32  PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD 


They  are  dying  out  not  by  families  and  villages, 
but  by  nations.  It  seems  impossible  that  such  a 
thing  should  be  in  our  day,  but  it  has  come.  For 
more  than  three  years  the  daily  papers  have  carried 
the  story  of  famine  sufferers  until  the  headlines 
have  become  stale. 

If  we  turn  from  these  war-lamed,  starving,  dy¬ 
ing  nations  to  our  own,  what  greets  us  but  indus¬ 
trial  unrest,  social  discontent,  the  strife  and  clash 
of  classes,  lawlessness,  contempt  for  the  decisions 
of  our  courts,  mob  violence  and  race  riots,  strikes 
and  clamour  and  hate  ?  Opportunity  is  dying  out 
before  our  eyes,  because  we  have  been  foolish 
enough  with  our  own  hands  to  kindle  the  fires  that 
burn  up  hope. 

Add  to  all  this  the  ravages  of  disease,  the  falling 
away  of  moral  restraints,  the  prevalence  of  sexual 
vice  and  its  inescapable  penalties,  the  increase  of 
moral  perverts  and  degenerates,  the  filling  up  of 
insane  asylums,  the  imperilling  of  the  present  and 
future  integrity  of  the  race,  until  conditions  are 
created  which  a  twentieth  century  reporter  might 
write  up  as  Paul  wrote  to  Rome  two  thousand 
years  ago.  In  1920  in  New  York  City  there  were 
679  homicides  and  one  conviction.  The  number 
of  cases  of  dishonesty  reported  showed  an  increase 
of  seventy-one  per  cent.  Of  crimes  committed, 
ninety  per  cent,  were  by  people  under  twenty-five 
years  of  age.  It  is  not  going  too  far  to  label  ours, 
too,  a  bankrupt  world. 


PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD  33 


Bankrupt  Despite  All  This 

The  world  is  bankrupt  despite  the  fact  that  gov¬ 
ernment  is  being  administered  under  the  best  form 
in  human  history.  We  have  gotten  away  from 
despotisms  and  tyrannies  to  republics.  The  yoke  of 
oppression  has  been  torn  off,  and  men  are  free.  If 
government  can  cure  national  bankruptcy,  things 
should  be  mending. 

Our  material  prosperity  is  also  abundant.  The 
world  grows  great  crops.  We  have  learned  to  ex¬ 
ploit  our  natural  resources.  We  are  experts  in 
agriculture  and  irrigation.  We  can  match  the  sea¬ 
sons  and  the  climate  and  the  soil  with  our  clever¬ 
ness.  There  is  plenty  of  bread.  But  with  fields 
of  plenty  the  famished  and  starving  races  continue 
to  blacken  and  die. 

Society  is  full  of  unrest  despite  the  fact  that 
labour  is  better  paid  than  ever.  Not  only  has 
slavery  been  wiped  out  and  labour  emancipated,  but 
it  has  been  enfranchised.  It  now  dictates.  Yet 
discontent  was  never  more  in  evidence,  nor  human 
greed  more  grasping. 

It  is  a  bankrupt  world  despite  the  progress 
science  has  made  in  meeting  and  mastering  the 
problems  of  life.  The  veil  has  lifted.  Secrets  are 
disclosed.  We  seem  to  know  about  all  that  needs 
to  be  known.  But  how  poor  and  weak  we  are! 
We  continue  to  stagger  on  under  our  heavy  load. 
Our  bodies  rot  out  with  disease,  and  our  hearts 


34  PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD 

still  cry  for  the  rest  and  peace  which  seem  so  slow 
and  far. 

We  have  conquered  the  air  and  harnessed  the 
invisible  forces  of  the  world.  We  have  wiped  out 
distance  and  talked  around  the  earth.  We  have 
sent  the  human  voice  on  mysterious  radio  waves 
out  into  misty  space  and  all  but  stormed  the  gates 
of  heaven  itself.  All  this  and  much  more  than  all 
this  man  has  achieved.  And  yet  there  tarries  on 
the  map  a  broken  and  bankrupt  world  whose  streets 
are  thronged  with  misery  and  want,  out  of  the 
windows  of  whose  homes  look  faces  wan  and  worn 
with  long  disappointment,  and  whose  inmates,  gaz¬ 
ing  like  prisoners  of  hope  through  barred  windows, 
pray  for  a  day  that  does  not  come. 

What  Is  to  Be  Done? 

What  is  to  be  said  in  the  presence  of  a  bankrupt 
world?  The  striking  thing  is  that  Paul  was  not 
cast  down.  He  painted  his  picture,  and  he  did  it 
with  a  steady  hand.  He  talks  about  the  situation, 
but  he  speaks  in  level  tones.  He  looks  on,  but  he 
4  is  not  scared.  He  faced  the  ruin  of  a  world,  and 
he  did  so  with  a  soul  that  was  buoyant  with  hope. 
It  was  not  because  he  was  queer  enough  to  be 
elated  by  defeat,  nor  because  he  was  so  callous  that 
human  suffering  failed  to  impress  him.  Never 
was  there  a  man  more  human.  He  was  serene  be¬ 
cause  he  believed  he  had  the  secret  of  making  the 
bankrupt  world  solvent. 


PEEACHEE  AND  BANKEUPT  WOELD  35 


As  he  looked  on,  he  said :  “I  am  not  ashamed 
of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  for  it  is  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation  to  everyone  that  believeth.”  He  de¬ 
clared  that  he  was  not  ready  to  salvage  civilization. 
He  was  out  to  save  it.  He  felt  that  he  had  some¬ 
thing  that  could  do  what  government  was  futile  to 
accomplish,  what  prosperity  was  unable  to  bring  to 
pass,  what  science  and  education  and  invention  and 
trade  were  powerless  to  produce,  what  the  miracle- 
working  powers  of  steam  and  electricity  and  radio 
had  failed  even  to  suggest.  He  had  the  Gospel. 
It  was  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation. 

He  believed  the  Gospel  could  get  civilization  off 
the  rocks,  that  it  could  rebuild  a  society  in  ruins, 
that  it  could  put  out  the  fires  that  were  burning  up 
the  world  and  restore  to  sanity  a  race  crazed  with 
lust  for  power,  mad  with  passion  for  pleasure,  and 
steeped  in  sexual  excess.  He  believed  he  had 
something  that  could  quell  the  storm  and  bring 
peace,  that  could  strike  a  light  in  the  blinding  dark¬ 
ness  and  show  the  lost  a  path  back  home,  some¬ 
thing  that  could  make  the  bankrupt  world  solvent 
and  its  people  safe  and  friendly  and  happy. 

He  believed  this  so  thoroughly  that  he  went 
bankrupt  for  the  sake  of  his  convictions.  He  gave 
up  all  he  had  for  the  chance  to  preach  the  Gospel 
to  a  broken  world.  That  is  the  story.  He  said: 
“  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel.”  He  meant 
that  he  believed  in  the  Gospel  as  he  believed  in  God 
Himself,  that  he  was  ready  to  pay  any  price,  to  put 


36  PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD 


in  pawn  any  chance  for  fame  or  gain  or  ease,  to 
welcome  bonds  and  prison  cells  and  hunger  and 
cold,  and  death  if  needs  be,  just  that  he  might 
go  out  and  preach  to  the  bankrupt  world  the  living 
Gospel  which  is  “  the  power  of  God  unto  salva¬ 
tion/' 

Was  he  mistaken  ?  One  must  do  more  than  say 
it  to  prove  it.  Are  we  reminded  of  the  sight  which 
still  faces  eyes  keen  and  kind  enough  to  see  human 
misery  and  woe,  the  sight  of  a  bankrupt  world  not¬ 
withstanding  men  have  been  preaching  Paul's  Gos¬ 
pel  for  two  thousand  years?  Still  it  is  true  that 
wherever  men  have  received  and  practiced  this  Gos¬ 
pel,  and  in  so  far,  strange  assets  have  begun  to  take 
shape  and  form,  and  men  have  dared  to  hope  that 
some  day  the  broken  world  might  liquidate,  and 
civilization  hold  up  its  head. 

Does  someone  recite  the  fact  that  the  Gospel,  so 
far  from  preventing  war,  seems  to  foster  it?  For 
the  very  nations  that  so  recently  plunged  into  the 
bloodiest  war  of  all  time  were  the  so-called  Chris¬ 
tian  nations.  But  they  went  to  war  not  because  of 
their  Christianity.  It  was  in  spite  of  it  that  they 
fought.  Had  they  faithfully  practiced  the  teach¬ 
ings  of  Christ  there  would  have  been  no  war.  You 
have  not  given  your  doctor  a  square  deal  until  you 
take  his  medicine.  You  have  not  been  fair  to  the 
Man  of  Galilee  until  you  practice  His  Gospel.  It 
waits  to  be  practiced.  Jesus  waits  for  mankind  to 
give  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  one  honest  trial. 


PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD  37 


When  it  does,  this  broken  world  will  become  sol¬ 
vent. 

The  Miracle  of  the  Gospel 

How  can  the  Gospel  accomplish  this  ?  By  sham¬ 
ing  and  smiting  sin  to  its  death.  Sin  is  the  worm 
that  gnaws  at  the  heart  of  the  world  until  the  tree 
of  life  withers  and  rots  to  its  roots.  Sin  must  be 
slain.  This  is  what  Paul  means  when  he  says: 
“  The  wrath  of  God  is  revealed  against  the  ungod¬ 
liness  and  unrighteousness  of  men  who  hinder  the 
truth  with  their  unrighteousness.”  It  would  be  an 
awful  thing  for  God  to  look  on  at  sin  with  uncon¬ 
cern,  for  Him  to  see  this  riot  of  immorality  and  not 
turn  loose  the  lightning  of  His  anger.  The  Gospel 
makes  man  afraid  to  do  wrong.  It  tells  him  that 
he  must  clean  up  his  life,  that  he  must  quit  plunder¬ 
ing  and  be  decent. 

The  Gospel  makes  the  bankrupt  world  solvent  by 
keeping  hope  alive.  We  are  saved  by  hope.  Hope 
is  seeing  what  the  world  is  going  to  be  when  God 
has  His  way  with  it,  and  believing  that  He  will 
certainly  some  day  have  His  way  with  it.  Hope  is 
not  the  futile  speculation  of  fools.  It  is  not  a  song 
of  mortal  man  chanted  to  a  bird  god  or  a  cow  god 
or  a  snake  god  or  a  new  notion  god.  It  is  not  ex¬ 
pectation  built  on  human  discoveries  and  inventions 
and  achievements.  Hope  is  a  vision  of  the  white 
throne  of  the  Almighty.  It  is  a  sight  of  God 
building  His  world  in  the  shadows.  It  is  sensing 


38  PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD 


morning  at  midnight.  Sidney  Lanier  was  the 
apostle  of  hope  as  he  lay  on  his  dying  couch  amid 
fits  of  violent  coughing,  with  a  temperature  of  103, 
dying  of  tuberculosis,  and  wrote  “  Sunrise 

“  Oh,  never  the  mast-high  run  of  the  seas 
Of  traffic  shall  hide  thee, 

Never  the  hell-coloured  smoke  of  the  factories 
Hide  thee, 

Never  the  reek  of  the  time's  fen-politics 
Hide  thee, 

And  ever  my  heart  through  the  night 
Shall  with  knowledge  abide  thee, 

And  ever  by  day  shall  my  spirit,  as  one  that  hath 
tried  thee. 

Labour  at  leisure  in  art, — till  yonder  beside  thee 
My  soul  shall  float,  friend  Sun, 

The  day  being  done." 

The  Gospel  reveals  this  sight  and  keeps  hope 
alive,  and  by  doing  so  enables  suffering  humanity 
to  wait  through  the  long  night,  ever  and  again 
shouting  against  its  black  wall  of  baffling  shadows: 
“  The  morning  cometh !  ” 

The  Gospel  gets  civilization  off  of  the  rocks  by 
changing  human  nature.  The  fundamental  need  is 
not  to  change  conditions  but  people.  Change  peo¬ 
ple  and  they  will  change  conditions.  What  is 
needed  is  not  a  better  world  to  dwell  in,  but  a  better 
race  to  inhabit  the  world  we  have;  not  larger  op¬ 
portunities,  but  worthier  efforts  to  improve  present 


PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD  39 


opportunities.  The  Gospel  changes  the  individual. 
It  makes  man  a  partaker  of  the  Divine  nature.  It 
changes  the  social  order  by  changing  the  social 
unit.  It  makes  the  world  solvent  by  making  man 
trustworthy. 

The  Gospel  puts  out  the  fires  that  are  burning  up 
the  world  by  supplying  inward  moral  restraints 
when  outward  restraints  fall  away.  The  world 
moves  toward  freedom.  Man  can  never  be  satis¬ 
fied  with  anything  short  of  this.  But  freedom  be¬ 
comes  license  without  self-mastery  and  self-control. 
This  is  the  tragedy  in  Russia.  A  nation  has  gone 
over  the  precipice  because  there  was  nothing  to 
hold  when  despotism  released  its  grip.  The  Gospel 
teaches  men  to  restrain  themselves,  to  curb  their 
animal  appetites  and  passions,  to  use,  but  not  abuse, 
liberty. 

The  Gospel  saves  the  world  by  substituting  the 
law  of  love  for  the  law  of  hate,  the  Golden  Rule  of 
good-will  for  the  iron  rule  of  greed,  brotherhood 
for  competition,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  for  a 
selfish  cult,  service  for  slavery,  the  cross  for  the 
crown.  Here  is  the  only  cure  for  industrial  dis¬ 
content  and  the  clash  of  class  interests.  Love  is 
the  cure.  Oh,  that  the  stupid,  selfish  world  would 
stop  long  enough  to  listen  to  Jesus ! 

These  are  some  of  the  things  which  Paul  had  in 
mind  when  he  said:  “I  am  not  ashamed  of  the 
gospel.”  This  is  why  he  could  look  on  that  picture 
of  misery  with  a  steady  eye,  and  speak  in  even 


40  PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD 


tones.  The  bankrupt  world  was  not  his  despair. 
It  was  his  opportunity.  He  had  the  cure.  It  did 
not  depress  him.  It  challenged  him.  He  was  the 
one  man  on  earth  who  could  make  it  solvent. 

Being  a  Preacher 

Do  you  begin  to  see  what  it  means  to  be  a  Chris¬ 
tian,  to  incarnate  the  Gospel,  to  embody  in  one’s 
self  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  to  practice  the 
Golden  Rule,  to  translate  into  human  life  the  teach¬ 
ings  of  Jesus? 

Do  we  begin  to  see  what  it  means  to  invest  what 
we  have  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  to  give 
our  money  that  the  bankrupt  world  may  start  up 
in  business  again,  to  give  to  society  in  ruins  that 
which  will  heal  the  world’s  open  sore?  “  Then 
shall  the  lame  man  leap  as  an  hind,  and  the  tongue 
of  the  dumb  shall  sing.”  Then,  when  he  hears  the 
good  news  of  the  Gospel !  There  is  no  investment 
to  compare  with  this.  There  is  none  that  yields 
such  returns.  Here  is  the  thing  that  is  dynamic 
for  redemption.  If  we  are  out  just  to  salvage  civi¬ 
lization,  to  scrap  the  wreck,  we  may  stop  at  the 
half-way  place.  But  if  it  is  salvation  we  are  after, 
if  it  is  a  new  world,  able  to  meet  its  obligations 
and  pay  one  hundred  cents  on  the  dollar,  we  must 
push  on  to  Calvary. 

Do  we  begin  to  see  what  it  means  to  invest  what 
we  are  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  what  it 
means  to  be  a  preacher,  to  spend  life  doing  the  one 


PREACHER  AND  BANKRUPT  WORLD  41 


thing  that  makes  a  bankrupt  world  solvent  ?  It  is 
a  calling  to  fill  angels  with  envy.  Yes,  the  pay  is 
small,  but  the  reward  is  measureless  and  the  task  is 
divine.  It  is  enough  to  make  a  man  strip  off  every 
earthly  ambition  and  be  willing  to  face  fire  and 
flood  and  hunger  and  chains  and  death  just  for  the 
chance  to  preach  the  Gospel. 

Would  you  like  to  do  the  biggest  thing  level  to 
a  man's  reach?  Here  it  is,  a  preacher  of  the  Gos¬ 
pel,  poor,  underpaid,  oftentimes  obscure,  “  in 
weariness  and  painfulness,  in  watchings  often,  in 
hunger  and  thirst,  in  fastings  often,  in  cold  and 
nakedness/'  but  a  world-builder;  a  man  in  bonds, 
clanking  his  chain,  gazing  through  the  grated  win¬ 
dow  of  a  prison  cell,  but  an  “  ambassador  in 
bonds/’  so  poor  that  he  cannot  afford  to  lose  an 
old  cloak  left  at  Troas,  and  yet  so  rich  that  he  can 
feed  and  clothe  with  joy  and  hope  and  courage  the 
worn  and  weary  world. 

It  is  great  to  be  a  preacher.  It  is  sublime !  It 
brushes  the  stars.  “  Whom  shall  I  send  and  who 
will  go  for  us?  "  “  Here  am  I,  Lord.  Send  me !  " 


Ill 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 

IF  one  is  concerned  for  what  he  can  get  out  of 
life,  the  claims  of  the  gospel  ministry  are 
strong,  but  if  he  is  concerned  for  what  he  can 
put  into  life,  those  claims  become  well-nigh  irresis¬ 
tible.  If  one  is  thinking  of  what  he  can  make  the 
world  do  for  him,  he  will  not  seriously  consider 
becoming  a  preacher,  but  if  he  has  a  passion  for 
service,  a  longing  to  be  useful,  a  fiery  zeal  to  do 
something  for  others,  the  glamour  of  the  preacher’s 
calling  will  capture  his  imagination  and  draw  like  a 
magnet. 

“  It  is  my  ambition/’  said  a  man  who  was  being 
inaugurated  as  Governor  of  a  great  State,  “  to  be¬ 
come  the  most  useful  servant  in  this  common¬ 
wealth.”  It  is  this  ambition  that  feeds  the  preach¬ 
er’s  vocation.  It  is  the  chance  to  serve  that  ap¬ 
peals.  It  is  not  the  stipend  nor  the  position  nor 
the  earthly  honours  nor  even  the  crown  which  is 
said  to  be  waiting  in  the  other  world.  It  is  that 
open  door  through  which  one  may  walk  into  the 
heart  of  a  weary  and  broken  world.  If  one  is  out 
for  gain  or  place  or  power,  the  appeal  will  fall  on 

42 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


43 


deaf  ears,  but  if  his  passion  be  for  service,  what¬ 
ever  his  gifts  or  attainments,  the  gospel  ministry 
will  sound  a  call  and  sing  a  song  and  satisfy. 

This  is  the  outstanding  feature  of  the  holy  call¬ 
ing.  The  ministry  is  just  a  word  to  picture  serv¬ 
ice.  The  greatest  preacher  in  the  New  Testament 
church,  in  the  opening  sentence  of  his  greatest 
book,  announces  himself  as  a  servant — “  Paul,  a 
servant  of  Jesus  Christ.”  And  the  theme  of  the 
chapters  which  follow  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
is  “  the  life  of  service.”  The  Master  Himself  de¬ 
clared:  “  I  am  among  you  as  one  that  serveth.” 
v  Christ's  glory  was  not  that  He  came  to  be  minis¬ 
tered  unto,  but  to  minister ;  not  to  be  served,  but  to 
serve.  If  service  was  spacious  enough  for  the 
vocation  of  a  God,  it  will  not  cramp  mortals.  If 
it  is  the  height  on  which  Jesus  lived,  man  can  climb 
no  higher.  He  has  entered  upon  the  sublimest 
calling  open  to  men  who  follows  in  the  radiant 
steps  of  Him  Who  lived  to  serve. 

Nor  let  us  fancy  that  because  service  is  the  voca¬ 
tion  of  a  God  it  therefore  divorces  itself  from 
lowly  deeds  and  menial  tasks.  A  servant  does  not 
go  through  life  with  his  head  in  the  air.  The 
preacher  who  feels  that  his  calling  invests  him  with 
a  sanctity  and  a  dignity  that  must  not  be  soiled  by 
contacts  with  the  cheap  and  sordid  side  of  life 
needs  a  vision.  He  needs  to  stand  by  and  look  on 
while  Jesus  girds  Himself  with  a  towel  and  washes 
His  disciples'  feet. 


44 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


“  Stoop,  stoop,  proud  man,  the  gate  of  Heaven  is 
low, 

And  he  who  enters  in  thereat  must  bow.” 

Jesus  dragged  heaven  down  to  earth,  and  lifted 
earth  to  heaven,  too,  in  that  act  of  menial  service 
when  He  washed  His  disciples’  feet.  It  points  the 
way  for  all  who  would  follow  Him.  Ours  is  a 
holy  calling  because  it  is  a  human  calling.  It  is  a 
holy  calling,  but  not  an  arrogant  calling.  Nothing 
must  be  shunned  that  serves.  What  a  glorious 
thing  for  one  of  great  gifts  and  rare  scholarship 
to  get  his  shoulder  under  the  load  of  ignorance  and 
poverty !  What  a  sight  to  see  a  sage  serve  a  child ! 
It  makes  one  think  of  Jesus. 

But  while  the  appeal  of  the  ministry  from  the 
standpoint  of  service  has  a  sweep  that  takes  in  all 
the  lowly  tasks  and  humble  places  of  the  common 
life,  it  also  has  a  reach  that  ranks  the  ministry  as 
the  supreme  vocation  for  some  of  society’s  sublim- 
est  adventures.  To  be  sure,  the  preacher  works  in 
a  realm  where  forces  are  more  or  less  intangible, 
and  where  products  cannot  be  pigeonholed  nor 
catalogued  in  the  statistics  of  the  senses.  For  this 
reason,  people  with  a  crude  and  shallow  diagnosis 
of  values  sometimes  pronounce  the  preacher  a  non¬ 
producer.  If  we  stop  with  corn  and  cotton  and 
pig-iron  and  turpentine,  the  fling  has  merit;  but  if 
we  consider  character  and  justice  and  freedom  and 
good-will,  the  products  of  the  ministry  belong  to 
big  business. 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


45 


One  afternoon  I  was  on  a  trolley  car  going  out 
of  Atlanta  to  Decatur  to  preach  next  morning  the 
baccalaureate  sermon  for  Agnes  Scott  College. 
My  suitcase  was  beside  me.  The  man  who  sat 
across  the  aisle  looked  friendly,  grew  sociable,  and 
said:  “Are  you  a  travelling  man?  ”  “  I  am,”  I  re¬ 
plied.  “  What  line  ?  ”  “I  am  a  preacher.  I 
travel  for  God.  I  am  in  the  business  of  religion.” 
He  seemed  taken  a  bit  aback,  and  then  rallied  with 
the  remark:  “  Preacher,  you’re  in  a  big  business. 
You’re  in  the  biggest  business  in  the  world.”  And 
so  I  was.  And  so  is  every  preacher. 

It  was  never  a  bigger  business  than  to-day.  The 
preacher’s  opportunity  is  great.  The  gate  is  wide 
open.  It  is  as  great  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Paul 
and  Peter  and  John.  All  that  Christ  promised  to 
them  He  promises  to  the  preacher  of  to-day.  He 
has  never  taken  back  aught  that  He  ever  said.  The 
present-day  minister  has  the  same  Christ  and  the 
same  Gospel  and  faces  the  same  needy  world. 

Indeed,  I  wonder  if  his  opportunity  is  not  larger, 
for  personality  has  a  reach  about  it  never  possessed 
before.  All  the  inventions  and  discoveries  that 
make  the  modern  world  what  it  is  but  equip  per¬ 
sonality  for  a  wider  work  and  a  larger  influence. 
Who  will  question  but  God  means  that  these  be 
used  in  His  service?  In  a  sense  more  real  than 
ever  before  the  field  is  the  world,  and  every 
preacher,  however  retired  and  inconspicuous  his 
pulpit,  makes  his  impression  on  world  life. 


46 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


Nor  is  this  all.  The  preacher’s  opportunity  is 
enhanced  by  the  fact  that  men  are  becoming  more 
and  more  convinced  that  the  only  thing  that  will 
save  society  as  well  as  the  individual  is  the  Gospel 
of  Christ.  Roger  Babson  may  not  be  orthodox 
from  the  standpoint  of  some  theological  creeds,  but 
he  is  certainly  orthodox  and  sound  in  his  diagnosis 
of  world  need  when  he  declares  that  what  the 
world  needs  most  to-day  is  a  revival  of  old-fash¬ 
ioned  religion. 

There  are  signs  that  it  is  coming.  There  are 
communities  that  within  recent  months  have  ex¬ 
perienced  their  greatest  spiritual  awakening.  The 
man  on  the  street  is  alert  to  spiritual  values.  Busi¬ 
ness  men  are  discussing  religion  perhaps  as  never 
before.  “  If  a  church  official  in  this  town,”  re¬ 
marked  a  leading  citizen,  “  talks  for  ten  minutes 
with  a  business  acquaintance  on  any  subject,  and 
before  he  closes  fails  to  say  something  about  the 
church  and  religion,  people  begin  to  suspect  his  ear¬ 
nestness  and  genuineness  as  a  Christian.”  All  of 
this  goes  to  increase  the  preacher’s  opportunity. 
There  is  practically  no  limit  to  his  chance  to-day. 
It  is  sky-high. 

If  it  was  a  great  thing  to  be  a  preacher  in  the 
days  of  Peter  and  Paul,  of  Chrysostom  and  Augus¬ 
tine,  it  is  not  less  so  now.  He  may  be  an  ordinary 
man  with  a  starvation  stipend  and  mediocre  gifts, 
in  a  sluggish  parish  of  drab  souls,  in  a  one-street 
town,  but  there  in  such  drab  surroundings  and  to 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SEE  VICE 


47 


such  narrow  minds  to  tell  the  story  that  brings 
heaven  down  to  their  doorstep  and  lengthens 
their  little  Main  Street  out  into  God’s  great  white 
way  is  to  practice  a  calling  that  brushes  the  stars. 
For  the  preacher  even  in  such  surroundings  is 
building  his  life  into  the  tallest  task  this  side  the 
throne  of  God. 


Salvation 

The  preacher  is  in  the  business  of  salvation. 
Man  is  essentially  a  spirit.  He  has  a  body,  but  is 
a  soul,  and  it  takes  a  soul  to  lift  a  body.  Hence 
his  supreme  experience  must  always  be  that  spiri¬ 
tual  change  which  we  call  salvation.  His  life  must 
center  right,  and  life  can  center  right  only  as  it 
centers  in  its  Maker.  Therefore,  the  first  and  con¬ 
stant  and  deepest  need  of  every  human  being  is  to 
get  saved.  Every  other  program  of  social  prog¬ 
ress  and  personal  betterment  waits  on  this. 

We  may  differ  in  our  philosophy  and  theology 
of  salvation,  but  I  doubt  if  we  can  differ  much  as 
to  its  necessity.  The  highest  authority  says  to 
man:  “  You  must  be  born  again.”  It  is  important 
for  the  individual  to  treat  his  body  right,  to  keep 
physically  fit;  to  treat  his  mind  right,  to  be  edu¬ 
cated  ;  to  treat  his  surroundings  right,  to  be  trained 
so  as  to  function  safely  as  a  social  unit;  but  it  is 
more  important  that  he  treat  himself  right  and  get 
saved.  Back  of  all  else  and  qualifying  for  every 
duty  and  privilege  is  salvation.  When  one  gets 


48 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SEEYICE 


saved  he  ceases  to  be  a  peril  or  a  problem  or  even 
a  liability,  and  becomes  an  asset.  He  has  found 
himself,  and  henceforth  society  does  not  need  to  be 
taxed  to  watch  him  and  make  him  behave. 

The  preacher  is  in  the  business  of  getting  people 
saved.  Salvation  is  his  specialty.  He  and  he 
alone  has  the  message  which  possesses  the  strange 
power  of  making  people  new  creatures,  of  enabling 
them  to  become  partakers  of  the  Divine  nature,  of 
leading  men  into  sonship  and  heirship  and  compan¬ 
ionship  with  God.  He  may  not  be  able  to  tell  his 
town  how  to  pave  streets  or  conduct  schools  or  run 
the  government,  but  he  can  show  people  how  to  get 
saved,  how  to  fight  sin  in  themselves  and  in  their 
surroundings,  how  to  triumph  over  temptation, 
how  to  build  character,  how  to  become,  how  to  be 
patient  under  trial  and  strong  under  strain  and 
courageous  in  danger  and  serene  in  death.  Doing 
these,  he  has  served ;  giving  them  a  Saviour,  he  has 
given  them  something  more  precious  than  gold  and 
more  satisfying  than  place  and  power. 

Democracy 

The  preacher  is  in  the  business  of  democracy. 
Democracy  is  a  world  in  which  people  do  as  they 
please,  in  which  it  has  gotten  rid  not  only  of  kings 
but  of  classes.  Only  the  people  are  left,  and  their 
sole  remaining  restraint  is  what  the  people  please. 
Democracy  is  at  once  the  most  perilous  and  the 
most  satisfying,  the  most  fascinating  and  the  most 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


49 


terrifying  form  under  which  society  can  exist,  and 
the  drift  of  the  race  is  hopelessly  toward  democ¬ 
racy.  The  world  was  never  freer  than  it  is  to-day. 
Many  of  the  old  restraints  are  gone.  The  remain¬ 
ing  seem  going.  Many  of  the  barriers  which  have 
blocked  the  road  to  greed  of  gain  and  lust  for 
power  are  down.  It  is  but  a  question  of  time  when 
the  rest  will  go. 

What  is  to  hold  the  world  as  its  dream  of  democ¬ 
racy  becomes  an  increasing  reality?  It  is  evident 
that  as  men  are  less  and  less  controlled  from  with¬ 
out,  they  must  be  more  and  more  controlled  from 
within;  that  as  the  individual  is  less  and  less  re¬ 
strained  by  society,  he  must  learn  more  and  more 
to  restrain  himself.  Society  has  had  many  lessons 
of  the  folly  of  tearing  down  without  and  failing  to 
build  up  within.  Russia  is  the  latest  example. 
Bolshevism  has  made  the  world  turn  sick  with  hor¬ 
ror  at  the  madness  of  a  democracy  that  was  noth¬ 
ing  but  a  red  riot  of  unbridled  lust,  that  said:  “  Let 
us  be  free !  ”  but  did  not  say:  “  Let  us  become !  ” 

Who  is  to  tame  a  mad  world?  Who  is  to  say 
the  word  that  will  save  liberty  from  becoming  li¬ 
cense?  Who  is  to  cry:  “  Rein  in  and  slow  down !  ” 
as  the  race  riots  on  toward  freedom,  driving  peril¬ 
ously  near  the  brink  of  anarchy?  Who  is  to  build 
these  inner  restraints  as  the  outer  restraints  break 
and  the  outer  barriers  fall?  Who  is  to  lay  his 
hand  to  the  task  of  building  the  character  that  will 
stand  the  strain  of  democracy,  that  will  make  de- 


50 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


mocracy  safe?  If  the  preacher  does  not  do  it,  it 
will  not  be  done.  If  religion  fails,  society  is 
doomed.  But  as  surely  as  there  is  a  God  in 
heaven,  and  as  surely  as  there  are  men  on  earth  to 
preach  His  truth,  religion  need  not  and  will  not 
fail. 

This  is  the  second  great  service  the  Christian 
minister  renders  the  world.  He  is  the  statesman 
of  democracy.  His  task  is  to  make  it  safe  for  men 
to  be  free,  to  make  it  possible  for  the  world  to  take 
off  its  chains  and  tear  down  its  tyrannies  and  end 
its  despotisms  and  have  emancipation.  Yes, 

“  In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies  Christ  was  born  across 
the  sea, 

With  a  glory  in  His  bosom  which  transfigures  you 
and  me; 

As  He  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  live  to  make 
men  free, 

While  God  is  marching  on.” 

Brotherhood 

The  preacher  is  in  the  business  of  brotherhood, 
of  building  a  democracy  in  which  people  are  not 
just  citizens  jealous  of  their  rights,  but  brothers 
concerned  for  their  duties,  bearing  one  another’s 
burdens,  and  so  fulfilling  the  law  of  Christ. 

Man’s  dream  for  the  world  is  democracy,  but 
God’s  dream  for  the  world  is  brotherhood.  He 
wants  more  than  a  congregation.  He  wants  a 
family.  The  longing  for  brotherhood  cries  in  the 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


51 


heart  of  mankind.  It  beats  in  the  pulses  of  the 
race  kin.  It  clamours  in  our  longing  for  fellow¬ 
ship.  It  moans  out  of  human  weakness  and  need. 
It  sings  in  joys  that  double  and  sorrows  that  dwin¬ 
dle  as  they  are  shared.  It  shows  itself  in  a  thou¬ 
sand  orders  and  organizations  where  little  groups 
band  themselves  together  and  by  rules  and  signs  try 
to  shut  out  the  world  and  shut  in  their  own.  It 
reveals  itself  in  nationalism,  which  is  brotherhood 
waving  a  flag  and  saying:  “  The  strength  of  the 
wolf  is  the  pack.”  It  is  the  soul  and  center  of  the 
Christian  Church,  which  started  in  a  fellowship 
where  the  members  had  all  things  in  common, 
“  neither  said  any  of  them  that  aught  of  the  things 
which  he  possessed  was  his  own,”  of  the  church 
all  of  whose  creeds  and  symbols  are  a  travesty  if 
its  people  do  not  love  one  another.  But  brother¬ 
hood  must  be  racial.  You  cannot  build  it  out  of  a 
segment  of  mankind.  Where  is  the  builder  of 
human  brotherhood?  Where  is  there  one  with  a 
message  strong  enough  to  cement  humanity? 

It  is  not  enough  to  say:  “Be  brotherly.”  It 
does  not  suffice  to  long  for  such  comradeship,  or 
even  to  predict  it.  We  may  sing  with  Robert 
Burns : 


“  It’s  coming  yet  for  a’  that, 

That  man  to  man  the  warh  o'er 
Shall  brithers  be,  and  a ’  that.” 

But  the  song  will  not  work  the  miracle.  It  is  not 


52 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


enough  to  call  to  a  barren  bed  of  desert  sand:  “  Be 
flushed  with  a  living  stream/’  but  if  you  can  open 
a  spring  in  the  hills,  you  may  have  a  river  that  will 
not  run  dry.  If  we  are  to  have  brotherhood,  we 
must  have  people  who  are  brotherly,  who  have  the 
fountain  of  brotherhood  in  their  hearts,  who  have 
discovered  that  they  are  brothers  because  they  have 
found  that  God  is  their  Father.  Then  when  you 
tell  them  to  be  brotherly,  they  will  not  stare  at  you 
and  go  on  tearing  at  each  others’  throats.  Then 
when  you  preach  the  Golden  Rule,  you  will  find 
that  in  the  redeemed  life  resides  the  power  to 
translate  the  rule  from  a  stagy  motto  into  a  trans¬ 
forming  experience. 

This  is  what  the  preacher  makes  possible.  He 
not  only  proclaims  brotherhood ;  he  makes  it  a  real¬ 
ity.  He  not  only  tells  men  to  get  together;  he 
shows  them  how  to  assemble.  He  reveals  to  them 
the  only  Figure  on  the  skyline  tall  enough  for 
world  leadership  and  behind  Whom  the  race  can 
march  on,  keeping  step  and  keeping  faith  together. 
He  announces  One  Who  is  not  only  a  Saviour  for 
sinners,  but  Who  is  also  the  elder  Brother  of  man¬ 
kind,  and  whose  humanity  is  so  big,  so  capacious, 
so  all-inclusive,  so  representative,  so  international, 
so  racial,  that  all  men  find  themselves  in  Him. 

This  is  the  chance  to  serve  which  comes  to  the 
humblest  preacher  in  a  mountain  glen  or  a  city 
slum  as  well  as  to  the  most  gifted  minister  in  a 
cathedral  pulpit.  Let  him  know  that  he  is  helping 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


53 


men  to  be  brothers.  Whether  he  helps  them  to  do 
anything  else  or  not,  if  he  has  made  people  a  bit 
kinder,  he  has  made  this  life  worth  while,  and 
heaven  a  surer  heritage. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Not  only  is  brotherhood  beyond 
salvation  and  democracy,  but  we  are  coming  to  see 
that  there  is  something  beyond  even  brotherhood. 
There  is  a  higher  peak  that  shows  out  of  the  clouds 
as  the  race  climbs  on.  It  is  what  we  call 

Civilization 

The  preacher  is  in  the  business  of  civilization. 
Jesus  has  a  better  name  for  it.  He  called  it  the 
kingdom.  The  kingdom  is  society  organized  and 
unfolding  in  harmony  with  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 
It  is  man  related  to  God  and  his  fellows  not  in 
terms  of  ill-will,  but  of  good-will.  It  is  democracy 
governing  itself  with  the  single  simple  law:  “  Love 
one  another.”  It  is  brotherhood  translating  its 
mood  of  fellowship  into  constructive  programs  of 
international  and  racial  concern.  It  is  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  God’s  dream  for  His  world. 

It  will  take  a  long  time  to  achieve  civilization. 
It  will  take  forever.  The  race  as  well  as  the  indi¬ 
vidual  may  say:  “  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we 
shall  be.”  Civilization  is  the  kingdom  of  whose 
increase  there  is  no  end.  We  know  something  of 
a  tree  that  lives  for  a  hundred  years  and  then  rots 
down  into  mother  earth,  of  a  nation  that  grows  for 
a  thousand  years  and  then  disintegrates  and  is 


54 


tHE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


wiped  from  the  map,  of  a  planet  that  grows  for  a 
million  years  and  then  breaks  up  into  dust  and 
swims  out  on  the  ether  sea,  of  a  sun  that  waxes 
and  blazes  for  a  billion  millenniums  and  then 
flickers  in  its  socket  and  dies  from  the  sky.  But 
here  in  this  kingdom  is  something  that  is  to  in¬ 
crease  forever,  that  is  to  go  on  getting  better 
through  all  eternity. 

We  are  just  on  the  edge  of  civilization.  When 
we  look  back  toward  the  jungle,  it  seems  far.  But 
when  we  look  on  toward  the  glory,  we  find  that  we 
have  scarcely  made  a  start.  Who  can  tell  what  is 
waiting  for  humanity  along  the  road  that  winds 
and  winds  ever  toward  the  plains  of  peace  and  the 
heights  of  redemption?  “  Eye  hath  not  seen  nor 
ear  heard - ” 

And  the  preacher  is  the  prophet  of  civilization. 
He  is  the  ambassador  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  “  of 
whose  increase  there  is  no  end.”  No  wonder  Paul 
shook  his  fetters  and  said:  “  I  am  not  ashamed  of 
my  chains.”  No  wonder  he  lifted  his  head  and 
said :  “  I  am  an  ambassador  in  bonds !  ”  It  is  what 
any  courageous  servant  of  Christ  may  say.  He  is 
in  the  business  of  the  King  of  Kings.  Call  him  a 
non-producer?  Why,  he  sows  the  seed  for  the 
only  golden  harvest  the  world  will  ever  have !  His 
output  is  civilization.  He  may  be  like  the  miner 
who  toils  underground  by  the  light  of  his  little 
lamp,  but  he  produces  the  fuel  that  warms  the 
world.  He  may  be  like  the  labourer  who  toils  out 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


55 


of  sight  digging  a  place  for  foundation  stones,  but 
the  house  will  stand  on  the  spot  where  his  pick 
struck  fire  from  the  rock.  He  may  be  like  the 
stoker  in  the  hold  of  the  ship  as  it  swims  the  sea, 
sweating  his  life  out  on  the  edge  of  hell  that  his 
cargo  may  reach  port ;  like  that  star  that  hung  for 
a  season  over  a  cradle  in  Bethlehem  and  then  faded 
from  the  firmament  forever,  but  it  was  there  long 
enough  to  point  pilgrims  to  Him  Who  is  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life. 

To  Be  a  Preacher 

It  is  great  to  be  a  preacher, — just  an  inconspicu¬ 
ous,  obscure,  commonplace  preacher  of  the  ever¬ 
lasting  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God! 

It  is  something,  I  suppose,  to  be  an  earthly  king, 
although  the  vocation  has  almost  gone  out  of  fash¬ 
ion.  It  is  something  to  be  a  statesman  and  write 
the  laws  for  a  nation’s  safety  and  welfare.  It  is 
something  to  be  a  soldier  and  go  on  where  heroism 
flames  like  a  burnished  sun  and  life  is  laid  down 
for  a  glorious  cause.  It  is  something  to  be  an  in¬ 
ventor,  a  discoverer,  a  pioneer,  a  pathfinder  and 
road-builder  and  map-maker ;  but  it  is  greater  to  be 
a  preacher.  The  preacher  is  in  the  biggest  busi¬ 
ness  in  the  world, — in  the  business  of  salvation,  of 
democracy,  of  brotherhood,  of  civilization.  I 
would  not  exchange  my  pulpit  and  my  Bible  and 
my  Christ  for  all  the  world  can  offer.  It  is  the  one 
vocation  that  has  no  time  limit. 


56 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


“  Crowns  and  thrones  may  perish, 
Kingdoms  rise  and  wane, 

But  the  cross  of  Jesus 
Constant  will  remain.” 

The  preacher  is  in  the  biggest  business  in  the 
world  because  he  is  a  servant.  There  is  nothing 
beyond  service.  When  the  present  King  of  Great 
Britain  was  crowned  in  Westminster  Abbey,  the 
sermon  of  the  occasion  was  preached  from  the 
text;  “  I  am  among  you  as  one  that  serveth.” 
That  night  as  one  of  the  commissioners  from  Aus¬ 
tralia  was  making  his  way  back  to  his  hotel  from  a 
coronation  function,  he  lost  his  way  in  London  and 
found  himself  in  one  of  the  worst  of  the  city’s 
slums.  As  he  went  down  the  narrow,  shabby 
street  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morning,  he  found 
a  lad  and  a  little  girl  sitting  on  a  doorstep.  The 
boy  had  taken  off  his  coat  and  wrapped  it  around 
his  little  sister  to  protect  her  against  the  cold  of  the 
chilly  London  night.  Whether  it  be  under  a  king’s 
crown  in  Westminster  Abbey  or  under  the  ragged 
jacket  of  a  lad  on  a  stone  step  in  a  London  slum, 
the  greatest  thing  in  England  or  the  world  is  serv¬ 
ice.  As  Dr.  Van  Dyke  was  saying  good-bye  to 
Lord  Tennyson,  he  handed  him  a  volume  of  poems 
presented  by  the  poet  and  asked  Lord  Tennyson  to 
write  on  the  fly-leaf  the  lines  which  he  treasured 
most  among  all  that  he  had  written.  And  when 
the  book  was  given  back  to  him,  this  is  what  Dr. 
Van  Dyke  read: 


THE  SUMMONS  TO  SERVICE 


57 


“  Love  took  up  the  harp  of  life 
And  smote  on  all  the  chords  with  might, 
Smote  the  chord  of  self,  which  trembling, 
Passed  in  music  out  of  sight.” 

What  the  world  needs  to-day  is  people  whose 
vocation  is  a  passion  for  service;  who  are  not 
thinking  of  what  they  own,  but  of  what  they  owe; 
who  are  content  with  obscurity;  who  deliberately 
choose  poverty  as  their  stipend,  and  who  are  not 
ashamed  to  die  with  the  print  of  the  nails  in  their 
hands  and  feet. 

And  so  the  preacher’s  road  is  the  winding  thorn- 
path  to  the  cross-crowned  hill.  He  has  his  Cal¬ 
vary.  But  beyond  the  rugged,  rocky  heights  of 
Calvary  he  has  his  Olivet,  whose  brow,  turbaned 
in  the  white  clouds  of  ascension  glory,  waits  for 
Him  Who  went  away,  but  is  coming  back,  and 
Who  will  come  as  He  went,  in  the  same  old  way, 
still  saying:  “  I  am  among  you  as  one  that 
serveth.” 


i 


IV 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE 


w 


E  were  a  little  group  of  preachers  and 
laymen  meeting  in  Richmond,  Virginia, 
to  consider  a  matter  that  had  been  re¬ 


ferred  to  us  by  the  General  Assembly  of  our 
church.  One  afternoon  we  visited  Union  Theo¬ 
logical  Seminary,  the  leading  school  of  Southern 
Presbyterians  for  training  ministers.  We  were 
shown  around  the  grounds  and  through  the  build¬ 
ings,  and  came  to  the  library  on  whose  walls  hung 
the  portraits  of  a  number  of  the  former  students  of 
the  institution. 

One  of  our  group  was  the  distinguished  Chief 
Justice  of  a  Southern  State.  As  we  drove  away, 
he  turned  to  me  and  said:  “  I  would  give  twenty 
thousand  dollars  to  have  my  portrait  where  yours 
hangs  there  in  the  Seminary  library.”  Then  with 
a  sigh  he  added:  “Yours  is  the  greatest  calling  in 
the  world.  The  regret  of  my  life  is  that  I  did  not 
become  a  preacher  instead  of  a  lawyer.” 

The  opinion  of  such  a  man  is  not  to  be  lightly 
set  aside,  especially  when  it  coincides  with  that  of 
the  best  and  wisest  Man  who  ever  walked  the  earth 
and  worked  among  men.  “  Tell  John,”  Jesus  said, 
“  the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them.” 


THE  PEEACHEE  AND  HIS  MESSAGE  69 


This  was  the  strongest  credential  Christ  could  give. 
It  was  the  clearest  proof  that  God  had  come  to 
earth, — not  that  blind  men  saw  and  lame  men 
walked,  not  that  lepers  were  cleansed  and  deaf  ears 
unstopped,  not  even  that  graves  were  opened  and 
the  dead  raised  up,  but  that  the  poor  had  the  Gospel 
preached  to  them.  The  good  news  was  being  pro¬ 
claimed.  “  Go  and  tell  John  that,”  said  Jesus. 
“  He  will  understand.  He  has  spent  his  life  in  this 
business.  He  has  been  just  a  voice  crying  in  the 
wilderness.  He  knows  the  worth  of  a  message. 
Go  back  and  tell  him  that  the  poor  have  the  gospel 
preached  to  them,  and  he  will  laugh  at  Herod,  for 
he  will  know  that  while  they  may  bind  the  mes¬ 
senger,  the  message  is  not  bound.” 

All  that  the  Church  Has 

All  that  the  Church  has  is  a  message.  This  is 
all  that  it  had  at  the  first.  When  Christianity 
started,  there  was  no  organization.  The  elaborate 
machine  which  has  grown  into  what  we  now  call 
the  Christian  Church  did  not  exist.  There  was  an 
ornate  system  of  worship  under  the  Old  Testament 
dispensation  which  headed  up  in  the  temple  at  Je¬ 
rusalem,  but  it  was  arrayed  against  Christ’s  dis¬ 
ciples.  It  had  applauded  Christ’s  death. 

At  the  start  the  Church  was  without  rituals  and 
creeds.  All  these  things,  whether  they  be  good  or 
bad,  have  been  worked  out  since.  The  Church 

i 

may  boast  of  imposing  spectacles  and  magnificent 


60  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE 


pageants  and  powerful  traditions,  but  it  had  none 
of  these  when  it  started.  It  was  without  money 
or  schools,  without  books  or  religious  press,  with¬ 
out  buildings  and  church  courts  and  conferences. 
All  that  little  group  of  men  had  was  a  message. 
They  called  it  the  Gospel,  the  good  news,  the  evan¬ 
gel. 

This  is  all  the  Church  has  ever  had.  It  has 
sought  much  else,  and  often  its  search  has  been 
successful,  but  sooner  or  later  it  has  discovered 
that  what  it  sought  outside  of  its  message  was 
fools’  gold.  It  has  sought  the  patronage  and  pro¬ 
tection  of  the  state  only  to  learn  that  a  state-fed 
church  cannot  save  a  lost  world.  It  has  sought 
numbers  and  wealth  and  scholarship,  only  to  dis¬ 
cover  that  without  the  message  these  are  mere 
straw  assets.  It  has  sought  to  build  stately 
churches  and  imposing  cathedrals,  and  it  has  seen 
them  become  the  tombs  of  religion,  without  the 
Gospel. 

All  that  the  Church  has  to-day  is  its  message. 
Silence  that,  and  the  Christian  Church  goes  out  of 
business.  Let  that  ring  clear  and  true,  and  you 
may  bum  down  every  church  and  wipe  out  all  the 
elaborate  machinery  that  has  been  built  about  it, 
you  may  strip  it  of  its  wealth  and  numbers  and  in¬ 
fluence,  but  if  it  still  have  left  a  voice  to  tell  the 
old,  old  story  of  Jesus  and  His  love,  it  remains  in 
possession  of  all  that  it  ever  had  and  of  all  that  it 
needs  to  bring  the  lost  world  back  to  God. 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE  61 


The  message  is  dynamic,  potential.  It  produces 
all  the  rest.  What  the  root  is  to  the  tree,  what  the 
sun  is  to  earth  and  sky,  the  message  is  to  the  king¬ 
dom.  Those  early  Christians  went  out  with  their 
message.  They  went  up  against  a  hostile  world 
with  the  Gospel.  They  proclaimed  the  good  news 
and  the  world  surrendered. 

Back  of  the  Message 

It  is  a  message  with  a  life  behind  it,  the  fairest 
and  finest,  the  most  beautiful  and  benevolent,  at 
once  the  gentlest  and  the  most  resistless  the  world 
has  ever  known.  Behind  the  Gospel  is  Christ.  The 
Gospel  is  not  merely  something  Jesus  said  or  taught 
or  did  or  had.  It  is  Christ  Himself.  The  mes¬ 
sage  was  an  incarnation.  It  was  great  with  all 
that  Christ  said  and  did  and  had  and  was,  and  its 
authority  was  sealed  by  His  resurrection  from  the 
dead.  Many  a  promoter  of  some  new  cult  or  re¬ 
ligion  has  found  himself  in  the  same  predicament 
as  the  man  who  felt  that  he  had  invented  a  per¬ 
fectly  good  religion,  but  somehow  he  could  get  no 
one  to  accept  it.  He  was  told  to  get  himself  cru¬ 
cified,  to  remain  in  the  grave  for  three  days  and 
then  rise  from  the  dead,  and  his  success  would  be 
assured.  The  message  Christ  gave  those  men  was 
that  kind  of  a  message.  It  was  written  in  the  life- 
beats  and  heart-throbs  of  the  Son  of  God.  No 
wonder  it  was  electric  with  omnipotence. 

It  is  a  message  with  Christian  experience  behind 


62  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE 

it.  The  disciples  were  not  telling  a  strange  tale, 
or  even  a  story  which  they  had  learned  out  of  a 
book.  Their  message  was  out  of  their  own  lives. 
It  was  not  conjecture.  To  them  the  Gospel  was 
not  a  great  “  perhaps.”  It  was  certitude.  It  was 
easier  for  them  to  doubt  their  own  existence  than 
their  message.  The  preacher  was  able  to  say:  “  I 
know  whom  I  have  believed.”  You  cannot  shut 
the  mouth  of  such  a  preacher.  You  may  burn 
him,  but  the  very  flames  will  take  from  his  parched 
tongue  the  song  and  carry  it  on.  You  may  bury 
him,  but  over  his  grave  will  stand  the  angel  of  the 
resurrection  saying:  “  He  is  not  here;  he  is  risen.” 
And  so  the  gospel  message  is  in  a  class  by  itself. 
No  argument  of  man  or  devil  can  make  headway 
against  it.  Its  polemic  is  the  conviction  of  a  soul 
that  has  experienced  its  reality. 

It  is  a  message  with  the  sublimest  moments  in 
human  history  behind  it.  Calvary  is  there  in  the 
background  of  the  message.  Will  the  weary  world 
ever  tire  of  the  cross  and  the  story  of  the  love  that 
knew  no  bounds,  the  old,  old  story  of  Jesus  and 
His  love  ?  It  is  the  heart  story  of  the  race.  It  is 
easier  for  night  watchers  to  tire  of  the  morning,  or 
for  thirsty  lips  to  tire  of  the  fountain  that  slakes 
their  thirst,  or  for  the  starving  to  tire  of  bread. 

“  In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory, 

Towering  o’er  the  wrecks  of  time, 

All  the  light  of  sacred  story 
Gathers  round  its  head  sublime.” 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE  63 


There  in  the  background  of  the  message  is  the 
cross-crowned  hill  and  the  Son  of  God  dying  to 
save  the  lost. 

Pentecost  is  there  in  the  background.  It  is  a 
message  of  powrer  as  well  as  love.  Pentecost  is 
there  with  its  baptism  of  fire  and  its  gift  of  tongues 
and  its  pledge  of  conquest.  The  message  was 
charged  with  the  voltage  of  heaven.  There  in  the 
background  of  the  message  is  the  little  group  wait¬ 
ing  in  the  upper  room,  until  suddenly  Pentecost  is 
fully  come,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  descends,  and  they 
speak  with  tongues,  and  they  have  been  speaking 
ever  since,  and  the  thing  they  have  proclaimed  has 
turned  the  world  upside  down,  for  behind  the  mes¬ 
sage  is  the  throne  of  God. 

The  empty  tomb  is  there,  too.  It  is  a  message 
of  life  as  well  as  of  power  and  love,  the  message  of 
Him  Who  has  conquered  death.  Why  should  the 
preachers  be  afraid?  Ever  and  again  as  they  de¬ 
liver  the  message,  Jesus  seems  to  come  to  them  as 
He  came  through  the  shut  door  to  show  His  hands 
and  feet  scarred  with  the  nails  of  the  cross,  as  He 
showed  them  to  Thomas;  to  stand  on  some  sea¬ 
shore  as  He  stood  that  morning  by  the  lakeside  and 
called  to  them  and  gave  them  the  secret  of  victory. 
All  this  flames  in  the  message.  No  wonder  the 
world  cannot  stop  the  Gospel.  Bars  are  powerless 
to  confine  and  flames  to  consume  the  truth  Christ’s 
servants  preach. 

To-day  it  is  a  vindicated  message.  The  Gospel 


64  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE 


is  no  longer  an  experiment.  Wherever  it  has  been 
preached  the  results  claimed  have  followed.  Real 
human  progress  dates  from  the  hour  the  disciples 
went  out  to  proclaim  the  message.  About  all  there 
is  of  value  in  human  civilization  is  due  to  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  the  Gospel  on  the  lives  of  men.  It  is  a 
message  that  has  stood  the  test  of  twenty  centuries. 
It  has  been  fiercely  fought  and  bitterly  persecuted, 
but  to-day  there  is  nothing  more  evident  than  that 
all  future  human  progress  must  be  in  line  with  the 
teachings  of  Christ. 

Such  is  the  message  Jesus  wants  us  to  give  the 
lost  world.  Who  would  want  a  better?  It  is  a 
message  incarnated  in  the  finest  life  the  world  has 
known,  demonstrated  in  human  experience,  with 
the  cross  and  the  fiery  baptism  of  heaven  and  the 
empty  tomb  in  the  background,  the  message  that 
has  been  vindicated  by  two  thousand  years  of  con¬ 
flict  and  achievement.  Out  there  in  the  future 
ahead  of  the  message  is  the  goal  of  a  redeemed 
world,  and  everyone  who  preaches  the  Gospel  is 
helping  humanity  toward  the  goal.  It  is  a  glorious 
message.  Just  to  have  the  chance  to  proclaim  it  is 
enough  to  set  a  soul  afire. 

Proclamation 

All  that  the  message  needs  is  proclamation.  It 
does  not  need  proof.  It  proves  itself.  You  do 
not  need  to  prove  the  soil  that  grows  the  grain  that 
feeds  the  world.  You  do  not  need  to  prove  the 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE  65 


spring  that  quenches  your  thirst.  You  need  only 
to  dip  a  cup  of  crystal  and  drink.  You  do  not 
need  to  prove  the  sun  that  shines  in  the  sky.  You 
do  not  need  to  prove  the  Gospel.  It  is  axiomatic. 
It  is  not  apologetics  nor  polemics  that  is  needed. 
It  is  proclamation.  “  You  shall  know  the  truth, 
and  the  truth  shall  make  you  tree.” 

It  is  not  defense  the  message  needs.  We  are  to 
“  contend  earnestly  for  the  truth  once  delivered  to 
the  saints,”  but  our  most  valiant  contending  is  an 
adequate  proclamation  of  the  truth.  We  must  not 
take  ourselves  too  seriously,  as  though  God’s  throne 
would  fall  down  if  we  let  go.  The  Almighty  does 
not  desire  us  to  strain  ourselves  to  that  extent. 
God  takes  care  that  His  truth  is  not  destroyed. 
The  preacher  need  not  be  nervous  about  the  mes¬ 
sage.  The  preacher  who  is,  is  like  a  man  who 
would  say  to  the  Mississippi  River:  “  I  am  afraid 
you  are  going  to  run  dry,  and  so  I  will  empty  my 
pint  cup  into  the  stream.”  But  the  father  of 
waters  replies:  “  Do  not  fear  for  me;  I  feed  from 
a  thousand  rivers  and  a  hundred  thousand  springs.” 
He  is  like  a  man  who  would  say  to  the  sky:  “  I  am 
afraid  you  will  fall  down,  and  so  I  am  going  to 
prop  up  the  sky  with  my  arm.”  But  the  dome  of 
heaven  replies:  “  Little  man,  do  not  fear  for  me;  I 
am  leaning  on  the  shoulder  of  the  Almighty.”  He 
is  like  a  man  who  would  say  to  the  blazing  sun:  “  I 
am  worried  about  you,  O  Sun;  I  am  afraid  you 
will  go  out,  and  so  I’ll  strike  a  light.”  But  the 


66  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE 


mighty  sun  replies:  “  Dismiss  your  anxiety;  I  was 
here  before  you  came,  and  I  shall  be  shining  when 
the  shadow  of  death  has  fallen  over  you.”  The 
message  is  God’s  truth.  It  is  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation.  It  needs  no  defense. 

All  that  it  needs  is  to  be  told.  It  must  have  a 
preacher.  “  How  shall  they  hear  without  a 
preacher?”  It  does  not  need  the  tricks  of  the 
orator  or  the  actor  or  the  rhetorician.  Its  appeal 
is  not  in  the  moving  eloquence  of  the  speaker.  Its 
power  is  not  in  the  dramatic  proclivities  of  the 
messenger.  Its  efficacy  is  not  in  the  stilted 
phrases  of  the  herald.  It  is  the  truth  that  saves. 
It  is  the  message  that  makes  men  free. 

Hence  “  it  has  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of 
preaching  to  save  them  that  believe.”  To  human 
wisdom  the  method  often  seems  utter  folly,  espe¬ 
cially  when  some  preachers  are  heard.  How  can 
God  expect  to  reach  a  lost  world  with  a  perform¬ 
ance  so  dull  and  stale  and  lifeless  ?  He  will  never 
do  it  if  He  is  depending  on  the  gifts  of  the 
preacher.  The  power  is  in  the  message.  Let  the 
message  be  clearly  and  faithfully  told  so  that  those 
who  hear  may  understand,  and  hell’s  foundations 
quiver. 

It  is  still  just  a  voice  for  which  God  asks,  just 
someone  to  go  out  and  tell  the  message.  This  is 
all  there  was  of  John  the  Baptist.  He  was  a 
“  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness.”  All  Christ  asked 
His  disciples  to  do  was  to  go  into  all  the  world  and 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE  67 


preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature.  It  is  all  He 
asks  for  to-day.  He  seeks  a  voice.  It  was  for 
this  that  He  gave  to  man  the  marvellous  gift  of 
speech.  He  was  preparing  for  the  proclamation 
of  the  message.  What  a  surrender  if  lips  are 
dumb!  What  a  condemnation  for  the  voice  to  be 
fluent  on  every  other  theme,  but  silent  when  it 
comes  to  the  gospel  message!  Shall  we  be  elo¬ 
quent  in  trade  and  politics,  in  literature  and  art  and 
adventure,  but  mute  when  God  needs  lips  to  speak 
the  truth  that  saves  ? 

Sticking  to  the  Message 

If  the  Church  is  to  win,  it  must  stick  to  its  mes¬ 
sage.  Nothing  can  ever  take  the  place  of  preach¬ 
ing.  People  who  are  alarmed  over  a  tendency 
which  they  are  pleased  to  call  “  sermonolatry  ”  are 
needlessly  alarmed.  It  is  probably  true  that  Prot¬ 
estantism  would  be  stronger  if  it  paid  more  atten¬ 
tion  to  worship  in  church  services,  but  Christianity 
is  a  religion  that  makes  its  appeal  to  the  intelli¬ 
gence,  to  the  heart,  and  not  merely  to  the  eye.  It 
centers  in  convictions.  It  asks  for  faith,  not  feel¬ 
ing.  It  is  always  and  preeminently  a  message,  and 
between  this  message,  faithfully  preached,  and  true 
worship  there  can  be  no  contradiction.  Preaching 
and  worship  supplement  each  other. 

An  institutional  church  can  never  take  the  place 
of  a  preaching  church.  There  need  be  no  hostility 
to  institutional  features,  provided  the  community 


68  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE 


to  which  the  church  ministers  needs  a  soup-kitchen 
or  a  play-hall  or  a  kindergarten  and  cannot  get 
them  in  any  other  way,  but  the  world  will  never  be 
saved  by  food  and  fresh  air  and  entertainment. 
Human  nature  is  not  to  be  changed  by  changing  its 
surroundings  any  more  than  a  dirty,  stagnant  pond 
is  to  be  purified  by  planting  flowers  on  the  bank, 
any  more  than  smallpox  is  to  be  cured  by  wall¬ 
paper  or  typhoid  fever  with  scenery.  These  things 
may  make  the  patient  cheerful,  and  in  so  far  as  they 
do,  are  to  be  commended,  but  the  Christian  Church 
is  in  the  business  of  salvation.  If  people  are  to  be 
saved,  there  is  but  one  thing  that  can  accomplish 
the  result.  It  is  the  Gospel. 

It  is  the  Gospel  that  is  to  be  preached.  It  is 
amazing  how  many  sermons  can  run  their  course 
without  once  encountering  gospel  truth.  There 
are  preachers  who  take  ordination  vows  to  preach 
the  Gospel,  but  they  seem  shy  of  the  task.  They 
are  afraid  the  sermon  may  be  dull  if  they  make  it 
too  religious.  If  they  only  knew  how  hungry  the 
lost  world  is  for  the  Gospel  they  would  not  be  shy. 
In  one  of  our  churches  the  minister  was  preaching 
his  farewell  sermon.  It  had  not  been  a  happy  pas¬ 
torate.  The  sermon  was  iconoclastic.  It  was  de¬ 
structive  of  about  all  that  devout  faith  holds  dear. 
As  two  of  the  elders  walked  down  the  steps  after 
the  service,  one  remarked  to  the  other:  “  What  did 
you  think  of  the  sermon?  ”  to  which  the  other  re¬ 
plied:  “  I  feel  like  the  Irish  tramp  whose  breakfast 


THE  PEEACHEE  AND  HIS  MESSAGE  69 


had  been  stolen  by  a  dog  when  the  man's  back  was 
turned.  Discovering  his  loss,  the  tramp  sighed 
and  said:  4 1  thank  God  my  appetite  is  left!  ’  ” 

There  are  preachers  who  feed  the  hungry  souls 
of  men  on  current  events  or  civic  righteousness  or 
moral  reform  or  new  thought.  No  wonder  their 
churches  are  empty,  or  if  filled,  filled  with  a  curious 
crowd  of  people  who  have  no  thought  of  God  be¬ 
fore  them. 

Jesus  did  not  commission  His  disciples  to  be 
moral  reformers  or  social  agitators.  He  did  not 
encourage  them  to  enter  politics  and  straighten  the 
crooked  and  cleanse  the  foul.  He  did  not  send 
them  out  to  muck-rake  and  hold  up  to  the  public 
gaze  the  putrid  filth  of  dirty  cities.  He  sent  them 
out  to  preach  the  Gospel.  Paul  had  an  excellent 
opportunity  to  discuss  slavery  when  he  sent  Onesi- 
mus  back  to  Philemon,  but  he  said  not  a  word 
about  it,  for  he  had  a  bigger  message.  Pie  had  the 
Gospel.  He  knew  that  when  men  received  the  Gos¬ 
pel  slavery  would  be  abolished  as  well  as  all  other 
wrongs  which  sin  had  brought  into  an  estranged 
world. 

If  the  Church  is  to  win,  it  must  stick  to  its  mes¬ 
sage.  This  is  all  that  it  needs  to  do.  The 
churches  that  are  vigorous  and  growing  are  those 
that  are  faithful  to  the  Gospel.  That  preacher 
does  not  fail  who  has  a  message.  The  Christian 
Church  has  the  best  thing  in  the  world  for  man’s 
soul.  There  is  nothing  that  can  compare  with  it, 


70  THE  PREACHES  AND  HIS  MESSAGE 


and  the  Church  needs  only  to  be  true  to  its  spiritual 
mission.  It  is  when  it  goes  out  on  side  issues  that 
it  encounters  failure.  If  the  Church  is  engaged  in 
entertaining  people,  the  theater  can  easily  put  it 
out  of  business.  If  it  is  trying  to  give  the  news, 
the  press  can  easily  outdistance  it.  If  its  goal  is 
social  reform  and  civic  righteousness,  there  are 
clubs  that  travel  on  cjuicker  trains.  But  when  it 
comes  to  the  message  that  shows  the  lost  soul  how 
to  get  right  with  God,  the  Church  stands  without  a 
competitor.  The  Church  has  the  Gospel,  and  its 
sole  and  supreme  task  is  to  proclaim  the  message. 

A  Big  Program 

This  does  not  mean  a  narrow  program,  although 
at  first  sight  to  some  it  may  seem  narrow.  When 
I  started  as  a  preacher  I  had  one  sermon.  I  re¬ 
garded  it  as  a  masterpiece.  To  me  it  was  exhaus¬ 
tive.  To  the  people  it  was  probably  exhausting. 
Into  it  I  had  packed  all  that  I  knew.  I  did  not  see 
how  I  could  ever  make  another  sermon.  There 
was  no  material  left.  But  I  soon  discovered  that 
truth’s  shore  line  is  like  the  ever-enlarging  zone  of 
a  circle.  The  further  you  travel  along  the  diam¬ 
eter,  the  bigger  grows  the  domain  covered  by  the 
circumference.  Life  is  infinite  in  its  variety,  and 
the  preacher’s  message  is  the  application  of  truth 
to  life’s  endless  need.  Hence  the  more  he  uses,  the 
fuller  grows  his  locker. 

Of  course  the  Gospel  can  be  given  a  narrow  in- 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE  71 


terpretation.  It  can  be  stripped  of  flesh  and  blood 
until  nothing  is  left  but  the  bare  bones.  “  We 
must  do  something  for  McNeilly  Church,"  said 
one  of  the  brethren  at  the  ministers'  meeting  on  a 
Monday  morning.  “  Things  are  going  in  a  bad 
way.  That  young  pastor  ignores  the  Confession 
of  Faith  and  rarely  speaks  of  the  catechism.  The 
people  are  not  getting  our  doctrines.,,  “  What  are 
they  getting?"  someone  asked.  “  He  is  giving 
them  nothing  but  just  the  plain,  simple  Gospel,"  re¬ 
plied  the  anxious  and  perturbed  brother.  “  The 
plain,  simple  Gospel?  Can  you  beat  it?"  he  was 
asked. 

The  plain,  simple  Gospel  is  not  so  bad,  and  when 
you  sense  its  sweep,  not  so  narrow.  It  is  narrow 
if  reduced  to  a  sectarian  scheme  for  avoiding  eter¬ 
nal  punishment,  if  offered  as  an  insurance  against 
fire  hereafter.  But  the  Gospel  as  Christ  gave  it  is 
great.  It  is  the  message  of  the  love  of  God,  a  love 
that  is  “  broader  than  the  measure  of  man's  mind." 
“  Oh,  to  be  able  to  comprehend  with  all  saints' 
what  is  the  breadth  and  length  and  depth  and 
height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which  pass- 
eth  knowledge,  that  ye  might  be  filled  with  all  the 
fullness  of  God."  The  extent  of  the  Gospel  is 
stated  in  John  3:  16.  “  God  so  loved  the  world  as 

to  give  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  be- 
lieveth  in  him  might  not  perish  but  have  everlasting 
life."  When  one  has  sounded  the  depths  and 
measured  the  heights  and  reached  out  to  the  dr- 


72  THE  PEEACHEE  AND  HIS  MESSAGE 


cumference  of  “  so  loved,”  he  will  begin  to  have 
some  idea  of  the  boundless  sweep  of  the  gospel 
message.  Let  us  consider  some  of  the  things  con¬ 
tained  in  the  message. 

Personal  Redemption 

Individual  salvation  is  there.  This  is  where  we 
must  start.  We  shall  never  get  a  better  world 
until  we  get  a  better  man,  and  we  shall  never  get  a 
better  man  until  he  is  redeemed.  Unregenerate 
human  nature  is  what  it  has  always  been.  It  is  as 
cold  and  brutal  and  animal  two  thousand  years 
after  Christ  as  it  was  two  thousand  years  before 
Christ.  The  deepest  need  in  every  human  life  is  to 
get  saved,  to  get  into  fellowship  with  God,  to  se¬ 
cure  the  forgiveness  of  sin  and  be  born  again. 

The  Christian  minister  has  the  message  of  sal¬ 
vation.  He  is  the  only  preacher  who  has.  Neither 
is  there  salvation  in  any  other,  for  “  there  is  none 
other  name  under  heaven  whereby  we  must  be 
saved.”  He  has  the  message  that  puts  a  fallen  man 
on  his  feet.  His  is  the  only  Gospel.  There  are 
plenty  of  religions,  but  only  one  Gospel,  only  one 
religion  with  a  cure  for  sin,  only  one  that  can  save. 

What  more  glorious  career  than  to  go  forth  into 
the  world  on  the  crusade  of  salvation?  It  is  some¬ 
thing  to  make  money.  It  is  far  greater  to  make 
character.  It  is  something  to  heal  the  sick  body. 
It  is  sublime  to  heal  the  sick  soul.  It  is  something 
to  give  bread  to  the  hungry,  but  to  make  men  par- 


THE  PEEACHEE  AND  HIS  MESSAGE  73 


takers  of  the  divine  nature  is  to  go  on  a  mission 
that  heaven  covets.  This  is  the  business  of  the 
preacher,  and  he  need  never  be  in  despair.  To  his 
Gospel  there  are  no  hopeless  cases. 

William  James  says  that  the  object  of  a  college 
education  is  to  enable  us  to  recognize  a  real  man 
when  we  see  one.  The  preacher  is  in  a  bigger 
business  than  education.  The  purpose  of  the  Gos- 
pel  is  not  to  recognize  but  to  produce  real  men. 

Fatherhood 

The  Gospel  is  the  message  that  God  is  our  Fa¬ 
ther.  It  was  this  that  Jesus  came  to  reveal.  “  He 
that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father.”  This  was 
the  sight  He  showed  the  world  on  Calvary’s  cross. 
God  is  wiser  than  a  judge,  mightier  than  a  king, 
greater  than  a  creator,  holier  than  a  saint.  He  is 
the  heavenly  Father. 

This  is  no  narrow  message.  It  is  no  item  of 
transitory  interest  to  be  flashed  on  the  wires  of  the 
world  and  forgotten.  The  question :  What  is  God  ? 
burns  at  the  heart  of  humanity.  How  does  God 
feel  toward  me?  is  an  inquiry  that  cannot  be  set 
aside.  The  man  who  preaches  the  Gospel  has  the 
answer  to  that  question.  He  has  the  message  that 
rests  the  weary  world.  The  greatest  discovery  a 
man  can  make  is  that  God  is  his  Father.  To  make 
that  discovery  is  to  be  saved. 

Brothers 

It  is  the  message  that  men  are  brothers.  If 


74  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE 


they  have  the  same  father  they  must  be  brothers. 
Human  brotherhood  will  never  come  to  stay  save 
as  it  comes  in  the  gospel  way,  for  the  bond  of 
brotherhood  is  more  than  to  have  the  same  colour 
or  the  same  speech,  or  to  belong  to  the  same  nation 
or  sect.  It  is  bigger  than  the  tie  of  trade  or  class. 
Brotherhood  is  a  big  phrase.  Sometimes  it  is 
treated  as  a  small  thing,  and  selfish  cliques  call 
themselves  brotherhoods.  But  brotherhood  must 
become  racial. 

The  gospel  message  preaches  racial  brotherhood, 
and  when  we  get  that,  alienations  will  be  healed, 
wars  will  cease,  strikes  will  be  over,  mankind  will 
be  one  family.  It  is  a  glorious  thing  to  proclaim 
such  a  message.  The  Christian  preacher  is  the 
evangelist  of  reconciliation  to  the  strife-torn  world. 

The  Kingdom 

The  Gospel  is  the  message  of  the  kingdom.  It  is 
social  as  well  as  individual.  It  widens  out  until  it 
concerns  itself  with  all  life.  As  men  embrace  the 
message  they  discover  that  it  sweeps  the  totality 
of  all  life’s  relations,  that  to  be  a  Christian  is  to 
be  a  citizen  of  the  kingdom,  and  that  to  be  a 
citizen  is  to  begin  to  build  a  new  world,  and  that  to 
build  a  new  world  is  to  tear  down  what  is  bad  and 
build  in  what  is  good,  is  to  fight  all  that  God  hates 
and  foster  and  promote  all  that  God  loves. 

Thus  the  gospel  program  widens  out  into  a  world 
program.  It  takes  in  everything.  It  is  a  message 


THE  PEEACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE  75 


of  hope  to  all  who  are  fallen.  It  means  daybreak 
to  the  weak  races  of  the  world,  and  opportunity  to 
those  who  have  ceased  to  hope. 

He  who  preaches  the  Gospel  is  the  prophet  of 
the  kingdom,  of  society  organized  in  harmony  with 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  of  human  relationships 
regulated  by  the  Golden  Rule.  It  is  the  message 
of  the  kingdom  “  of  whose  increase  there  shall  be 
no  end.”  No  wonder  John  was  content  to  be  just 
a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness.  No  wonder  Paul 
said:  “  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel.” 

Being  a  Preacher 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  a  voice  for  God.  It  is 
something  to  make  money,  to  write  books,  to  de¬ 
velop  mines,  to  enact  laws,  but  to  be  a  voice  crying 
in  the  wilderness  sounding  the  message  that 
changes  the  desert  into  a  garden  and  makes  the 
wilderness  bud  and  blossom  as  the  rose  is  to  enter 
the  great  vocation.  What  matters  it  if  like  John 
one  lose  his  head,  if  like  Paul  one  languish  in 
prison  ?  He  has  released  the  message  before  which 
the  dark  line  of  evil  retires  and  the  dawn  line  of 
hope  brightens. 

The  preacher’s  calling  is  to  proclaim  the  message 
that  saves  the  soul  and  brings  to  the  individual  his 
sublimest  experience,  that  reveals  the  face  of  God 
as  the  Father  of  mankind  and  leads  the  race  to  its 
greatest  discovery,  that  proclaims  the  brotherhood 
of  man  as  well  as  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  and  pre- 


76  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE 


sents  the  law  of  love  and  the  Golden  Rule  as  the 
statesmanship  of  a  fear-free,  warless  world,  and 
that  paints  on  the  sky  of  the  future  the  kingdom, 
the  divine  goal  of  human  endeavour,  and  the  social 
order  that  shall  come  down  from  God  out  of 
heaven  when  men  have  learned  to  “  learn  war  no 
more.” 

This  is  the  door  that  opens  to  a  young  man  who 
dedicates  his  life  to  the  gospel  ministry.  Could 
there  be  a  door  of  wider  influence?  This  is  the 
investment  of  life  one  makes  who  becomes  a 
Y  preacher.  What  investment  could  pay  bigger 
dividends?  This  is  the  career  on  which  he  enters 
who  hears  the  call  to  preach,  and  becomes  a  voice 
for  God.  What  career  can  be  sublimer  in  its  sum¬ 
mons,  more  satisfying  in  its  service,  or  more  lasting 
in  its  results  ? 

James  Keir  Hardie,  the  English  labour  leader, 
after  thirty  years  as  a  member  of  the  British 
Parliament,  said:  “  If  I  could  start  again  in  life,  I 
would  not  be  a  politician.  I  would  be  a  preacher, 
because  I  believe  that  as  a  preacher  I  could  be  of 
the  greatest  service  to  the  world.” 

The  chance  to  be  a  preacher  faces  every  young 
man  who  stands  at  the  door  of  life  trying  to  decide 
the  path  he  will  take.  He  makes  a  choice  that  will 
have  no  regrets,  who  elects  this  path  that  leads 
ever  toward  a  brightening  sky. 


V 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


“  7%  RMS  and  the  man  I  sing  ”  is  the  way  the 

A-Sk  ancient  world  wrote  its  creed.  It  was  a 
^  day  when  the  world  was  short  on  arms. 

Weapons  were  crude.  Tools  were  few.  Things 
were  scarce.  Baggage  was  light.  And  so  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  arms  ranked 
higher  than  personality  and  led  the  procession. 

But  the  world  has  made  marvellous  progress  in 
the  invention  and  manufacture  of  tools.  Arms 
have  become  not  only  so  plentiful  but  so  deadly 
that  the  horrors  of  war  stagger  the  imagination 
and  defy  description.  Man  has  a  tool  for  almost 
everything  that  needs  to  be  done.  It  is  the  age  of 
the  machine,  and  the  day  is  rapidly  approaching 
when  Mr.  Edison’s  prophecy  will  come  true  and 
man  will  do  by  machinery  all  that  he  now  does  by 
hand,  the  only  need  for  the  man  being  to  stand  by 
and  see  that  the  machine  keeps  going.  The  world 
is  no  longer  short  on  arms.  Tools  are  not  scarcer 
than  men.  Things  are  common.  Baggage  is  great. 
Were  the  world  to  write  its  creed  to-day,  it  would 
put  personality  first, — not  “  arms  and  a  man,”  but 
“  a  man  and  his  tools.” 

The  supreme  need  of  the  world  is  personality. 

77 


78  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


There  can  be  no  substitute  for  life.  No  weapon 
that  was  ever  invented  can  ever  take  the  place  of 
a  soldier.  No  organization  can  become  the  proxy 
of  personality.  The  greatest  thing  God  ever  made 
is  human  personality.  It  is  that  strange,  mysteri¬ 
ous  thing  which  makes  one  what  he  is,  which 
creates  individualism.  God  never  made  two  men 
exactly  alike.  Heredity  is  what  one  gets  from  his 
forebears.  Environment  is  what  he  gets  from  his 
surroundings.  And  personality  is  what  he  gets 
from  his  Maker.  It  is  made  up  of  the  three  ele¬ 
ments  of  judgment,  emotion,  and  volition.  The 
relation  of  these  three  to  each  other  creates  indi¬ 
vidualism.  When  judgment  is  in  the  ascendency, 
we  have  the  conservative  type;  when  emotion,  the 
enthusiast;  and  when  volition,  the  fanatic.  The 
outstanding  importance  of  the  man  confronts  us  in 
whatever  direction  we  may  turn. 

It  is  the  man  that  decides  the  day  in  politics. 
Parties  may  hold  conventions  and  attempt  to  mis¬ 
lead  the  people  with  platforms  which  were  never 
intended  to  be  kept,  but  the  important  thing  is: 
Who  stands  on  the  platform?  If  a  demagogue 
struts  and  squeaks,  no  one  has  any  confidence  in 
him.  What  is  needed  is  a  man  who  possesses  not 
only  leadership  but  character,  and  who  can  be 
trusted. 

The  same  thing  is  true  in  society.  The  safety 
of  society  resides  not  in  our  institutions,  but  in  the 
character  of  the  people  who  manage  them;  not  in 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  79 


our  wealth  and  opportunity,  but  in  the  kind  of  men 
who  handle  them.  In  business  life  credit  is  based 
on  confidence,  and  confidence  is  the  product  of  in¬ 
tegrity.  Put  a  plunger  at  the  head  of  a  bank,  and 
the  market  value  of  its  stock  sags.  To  stabilize 
business  transactions,  faith  is  needed,  and  faith  is 
born  not  of  dollars,  but  of  the  character  of  the 
men  who  handle  the  dollars. 

All  this  is  preeminently  true  when  it  comes  to 
>  religion.  In  the  church,  it  is  the  man  who  saves 
the  day.  It  is  not  his  sect  nor  his  robe  nor  his 
methods.  It  is  the  man.  We  have  seen  a  church 
divided,  and  when  the  right  man  came,  the  di¬ 
visions  were  healed.  We  have  seen  a  church  cold 
and  inactive,  but  when  the  right  man  came,  the 
frost  passed.  Sometimes  a  church  has  seemed  ab¬ 
solutely  dead,  but  with  the  coming  of  the  right 
man,  life  began  to  stir  beneath  the  ribs  of  death. 
There  is  only  one  problem  in  the  church,  only  one 
problem  in  the  world.  It  is  the  problem  of  finding 
the  right  man. 

This  is  the  conviction  that  backs  up  the  theme 
of  this  chapter, — the  man  behind  the  message. 
The  man  is  behind  the  message.  The  two  cannot 
be  divorced.  The  preacher  may  say  to  the  people 
what  a  groggy  father  said  to  his  son:  “  Do  not  look 
at  what  I  am ;  listen  to  what  I  say.”  Nevertheless, 
the  people  will  insist  on  looking,  and  nine-tenths  of 
them  will  believe  their  eyes  sooner  than  their  ears. 
The  preacher  is  the  moving  picture  of  his  business. 


80  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


He  says  something  two  or  three  times  a  week,  but 
the  film  of  his  daily  life  is  a  continuous  perform¬ 
ance.  He  is  behind  his  message  as  the  powder  is 
behind  the  ball. 

The  message  is  all  right.  It  is  as  perfect  as 
God  can  make  it.  The  preacher  need  not  be  nerv¬ 
ous  about  his  message.  It  will  take  care  of  itself. 
It  needs  neither  favour  nor  patronage,  for  it  is 
“  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.’’  It  is  the  only 
remedy  for  a  sick  world.  All  that  it  needs  is  a 
man  to  proclaim  it.  That  is  all  it  had  at  the  be¬ 
ginning.  To  His  first  disciples,  Jesus  said:  “Go 
and  preach  the  gospel,”  and  as  they  went  preach¬ 
ing,  they  found  that  somehow  the  message  they 
proclaimed  had  power  to  climb  the  mountains  and 
swim  the  seas  and  conquer  the  world.  The  Church 
has  never  been  short  on  a  message.  But  if  a 
shabby  man  be  placed  behind  a  great  message,  it 
is  like  putting  wet  powder  behind  the  ball.  You 
cannot  shoot  lead  with  sawdust.  The  Church  can¬ 
not  make  much  headway  with  a  message  projected 
by  a  jellyfish  ministry,  with  apostles  and  prophets 
and  evangelists  whose  spines  are  made  of  spaghetti. 

“  God  give  us  men !  ”  This  must  ever  be  the 
prayer  of  the  Church.  Nowhere  is  manhood  in 
greater  demand,  because  nowhere  is  the  genuine  so 
precious  or  the  counterfeit  so  dangerous  or  loss  so 
disastrous.  The  divine  plan  lays  the  emphasis  on 
the  man  behind  the  message.  It  is  the  plan  of 
revelation.  The  Bible  has  a  Hero.  “  In  the  volume 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  81 


of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me.”  On  the  pages  of 
the  Bible  come  to  meet  us  great  men  who  are  what 
they  declare.  It  is  the  plan  of  evangelization. 
The  message  is  to  be  carried  by  men,  not  by  angels. 
The  doctrines  of  religion  are  people.  When  they 
are  divorced  from  human  life,  they  become  mere 
dogmas.  It  is  the  plan  of  conquest.  “Ye  are  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost.”  Christ’s  church  is  a 
human  life.  His  polemic  is  not  a  book,  nor  a 
cathedral,  not  a  ritual  nor  a  creed.  “  A  man  shall 
be  as  an  hiding-place  from  the  wind  and  a  covert 
from  the  tempest,  as  rivers  of  water  in  a  dry  place 
and  as  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land.” 

The  unanswerable  argument  for  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  religion  is  a  holy  life.  It  makes  a  plea 
for  God  that  neither  man  nor  devil  can  refute,  and 
the  clearest  interpretation  of  the  Bible  is  one  who 
daily  lives  its  teachings.  “  What  is  your  favourite 
version  of  the  Bible?”  was  asked  of  a  group  of 
boys  in  the  Sunday  school.  Some  said:  “The 
King  James.”  Others:  “  The  Authorized.”  Some 
liked  Moffatt’s  New  Testament.  One  lad  said: 
“  I  like  my  mother’s  version  best.  She  lives  it.” 
There  is  no  finer  exposition  of  the  Scriptures  than 
a  holy  life. 

All  of  this  but  lays  increasing  emphasis  on  the 
importance  of  the  right  kind  of  man  behind  the 
message.  If  the  man  is  rotten,  no  matter  how 
sound  his  doctrine  may  be,  it  cannot  save  the  day. 
He  is  the  big  fact  in  his  ministry, — not  his  college, 


82  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


not  his  degrees,  not  his  parish,  but  the  man  himself. 
He  is  more  important  than  any  sermon  he  ever 
preaches,  than  any  service  he  ever  conducts,  than 
any  duty  he  ever  performs.  If  this  be  true,  what 
kind  of  a  man  should  he  be  ? 

A  Man 

He  must  be  first  and  foremost  and  always  a  man. 
Colleges  and  theological  seminaries  and  church 
courts  can  do  much,  but  they  cannot  make  a 
preacher  without  a  real  man  to  begin  with.  He 
must  be  a  manly  man.  Religion  has  suffered  too 
much  from  the  feminine  type  of  men  in  holy  or¬ 
ders.  Red  blood  is  needed  in  the  gospel  ministry 
as  in  any  other  vocation,  perhaps  more. 

The  preacher  must  possess  the  measures  and 
make-up  of  a  personality  that  will  lead  the  people 
by  what  the  man  is  as  well  as  by  what  he  says. 
Every  man  who  speaks  for  God  should  have  the 
kind  of  greatness  David  referred  to  when  he  said: 
“  Thy  gentleness  hath  made  me  great.” 

It  is  not  what  one  has  that  makes  him  great. 
It  is  not  the  amount  of  his  baggage  nor  the  size 
of  his  stipend  nor  the  numbers  of  his  crowd.  To 
be  sure,  the  world  frequently  estimates  preachers 
by  the  yard-stick  and  the  multiplication  table. 
The  first  question  asked  about  a  certain  minister 
who  was  being  considered  for  a  vacant  church  was: 
“  Does  he  have  crowds  ?  ”  The  inquiry  had  to  be 
answered  in  the  negative.  The  preacher  was  not 


*  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  83 


considered  further.  The  fact  that  he  had  souls  was 
of  minor  importance. 

Three  small  boys  were  talking  to  each  other 
about  their  respective  fathers.  One  was  the  son 
of  a  professional  ball  player,  one  of  an  actor,  and 
one  of  a  preacher.  All  were  hero  worshippers. 
The  first  said :  “  My  father  is  a  pitcher ;  he  gets 
fifteen  thousand  dollars  a  year.”  The  second  said: 
“  My  father  is  an  actor;  he  gets  fifty  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  a  year.”  The  third:  “  My  father  is  a  preacher, 
and  it  takes  twelve  men  to  take  up  the  collection !  ” 
They  were  measuring  human  greatness  by  a  popu¬ 
lar  standard,  but  the  man  behind  the  message  must 
have  more  than  a  packed  house  and  a  fat  stipend. 

Neither  is  it  what  one  does  that  makes  him  great. 
It  is  not  the  character  nor  the  number  of  his  activi¬ 
ties  that  is  important.  He  must  be  more  than  an 
organizer.  A  small  man  sometimes  gets  attached 
to  a  big  movement. 

Nor  is  it  what  one  knows  that  fits  him  for  his 
task.  Knowledge  and  greatness  are  far  from  be¬ 
ing  synonymous.  Science  may  boast  of  its  achieve¬ 
ments,  but  a  really  great  scientist  is  not  boastful. 
He  is  never  cocksure,  because  the  more  he  knows, 
the  more  he  knows  he  does  not  know.  Knowledge 
is  merely  a  method  of  discovering  how  ignorant  we 
are.  Because  one  has  memorized  the  dictionary 
and  mastered  the  encyclopedia,  it  does  not  follow 
that  he  is  ready  for  his  degree. 

It  is  what  a  man  is  that  makes  him  great. 


84  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


Greatness  is  on  the  inside.  It  is  a  quality  of  per¬ 
sonality.  It  is  an  attribute  of  character,  an  asset 
of  the  soul.  Socrates  was  great,  but  not  rich. 
Marshal  Foch  was  not  made  great  by  the  World 
War.  It  was  his  greatness  that  the  World  War 
revealed.  Jesus  Christ  was  great  not  because  of 
what  He  had,  not  because  of  what  He  said,  not 
because  of  what  He  did,  but  because  of  what  He 
was.  And  so  the  supreme  qualifications  for  the 
great  vocation  are  to  be  looked  for  in  the  man  him¬ 
self. 

The  man  behind  the  message  should  be  physic¬ 
ally  fit.  It  is  a  great  help  to  inherit  a  good 
physique,  to  have  a  sound  digestion,  to  possess 
nerves  and  muscles  and  blood  cells  that  function 
perfectly.  The  preacher  is  wise  who  cares  for  his 
body.  Physical  vigour  is  magnetic.  Of  course  the 
man  of  God  is  not  to  be  estimated  by  avoirdupois 
and  gastronomic  feats,  but  the  old  idea  that  a 
saint  is  sallow-visaged  and  dyspeptic  has  passed 
out  not  to  return.  It  is  a  red-blooded  saint  whom 
the  world  of  to-day  admires. 

And  the  world  is  not  wrong.  Physical  fitness 
reacts  on  the  preacher’s  ability  to  do  his  work.  It 
vitally  affects  all  his  contacts  with  the  community. 
It  has  much  to  do  with  his  outlook  on  life.  It 
powerfully  affects  his  theological  views,  and  de¬ 
termines  to  an  extent  the  character  of  his  message. 
This  is  not  saying  that  a  lame  body  may  not  be¬ 
come  the  King’s  messenger.  Paul  had  a  thorn  in 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  85 


the  flesh,  whatever  it  was,  and  often  some  shut-in 
through  holy  intercessions  rules  the  world  from  a 
bed  of  invalidism,  and  by  the  sheer  glory  of  spiri¬ 
tual  contact  shapes  the  coming  kingdom. 

The  human  body,  however,  when  it  came  from 
God’s  hands  unmarred  by  sin,  was  perfect.  Per¬ 
haps  in  no  calling  are  these  lines  of  Browning’s 
more  applicable  than  in  the  preacher’s: 

“  Let  us  not  always  say 
In  spite  of  flesh  to-day 
I  strove,  made  way,  gained  ground 
upon  the  whole, 

As  the  bird  wings  and  sings 
Let  us  say :  All  good  things  are  ours 
Nor  soul  helps  flesh  more  now  than 
flesh  helps  soul.” 

The  man  behind  the  message  should  be  intel¬ 
lectually  alert.  Religion  appeals  to  the  head  as  well 
as  to  the  heart.  Its  truths  are  profound  and  its 
system  sublime.  It  does  not  degrade  the  intellect 
in  order  to  exalt  the  heart.  And  so  the  preacher 
must  be  a  thinker.  He  needs  to  be  an  intellectual 
leader.  If  his  opinions  are  to  command  respect, 
they  must  not  be  half-baked.  Perhaps  not  so  much 
as  formerly,  but  to  an  extent,  the  preacher  is 
still  the  dominie.  He  may  be  a  man  of  mediocre 
ability,  but  he  must  be  intellectually  active,  men¬ 
tally  well-trained,  and  above  all,  honest  in  his  men¬ 
tal  processes. 

The  preacher  must  be  morally  clean.  He  will 


86  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


not  be,  without  a  battle.  The  very  nature  of  his 
calling  makes  him  an  easy  mark  for  attacks  that 
imperil  his  moral  integrity.  The  tragic  collapse  of 
a  minister  whose  morals  have  sagged  and  surren¬ 
dered  under  temptation  is  one  of  the  saddest 
calamities  to  befall  Christ’s  cause. 

The  preacher  must  fight  for  his  morals.  Even 
the  Lord’s  anointed  is  not  safe.  Some  of  the  most 
gifted  have  slipped  and  fallen.  So  saintly  a  man 
as  Charles  H.  Spurgeon  declared  that  he  had  in  his 
nature  tendencies  which,  had  they  not  been  held  in 
restraint  by  God’s  gracious  hand,  would  have  car¬ 
ried  him  into  the  deepest  hell. 

The  minister’s  character  is  his  capital,  and  his 
character  is  not  what  he  is  in  his  pulpit,  on  dress 
parade.  It  is  what  he  is  without  an  audience.  This 
question  of  morals  is  bigger.  It  means  lofty  ideals 
and  clean  speech  and  sense  enough  not  to  be  spoiled 
by  flattery.  The  preacher  who  tells  a  questionable 
story  is  probably  a  worse  influence  than  his  brother 
who  is  doctrinally  unsound.  His  foolish  friends 
will  be  inclined  to  tell  their  pastor,  especially  in  the 
earlier  years  of  his  service,  that  he  is  a  wonder. 
Unless  he  is  level-headed  and  has  a  good  share  of 
common  sense,  he  will  be  tempted  to  believe  them, 
and  conclude  that  he  is  something  when  he  is 
nothing.  Every  preacher  needs  one  good  critic 
who  kindly  but  firmly  will  tell  him  to  his  face 
the  truth.  Well  be  it  for  him  if  his  wife  is  such  a 
critic. 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  87 


The  question  of  morals  cuts  deeper  still.  It 
means  moral  earnestness.  It  demands  that  one 
take  his  work  seriously.  It  calls  for  self-efface¬ 
ment  on  one  hand,  and  for  such  aggressiveness  on 
the  other  as  enables  the  preacher  to  say:  “  The  zeal 
of  thine  house  hath  eaten  me  up.” 

The  man  behind  the  message  must  be  spiritually 
sound.  Popularity  may  be  to  him  a  blessing  or  a 
curse.  It  all  depends  upon  how  it  is  acquired.  If 
he  is  just  a  good  fellow  coming  down  to  the  world’s 
level  and  going  its  gaits,  so  far  as  a  preacher  may 
without  scandal,  he  has  capitulated. 

What  men  seek  in  a  minister  is  a  lifting  fellow¬ 
ship.  In  order  to  give  it,  the  preacher  must  meet 
men  on  a  spiritual  basis.  Spirituality  is  not  to  be 
confounded  with  piosity.  It  must  not  be  made 
offensive.  It  is  just  the  life-mood  of  one  who 
dwells  under  the  spell  of  the  eternal  in  unbroken 
fellowship  with  God,  and  to  whom  the  great  reali¬ 
ties  are  spiritual.  He  is  a  poor  man  behind  his 
message  if  there  be  nothing  about  him  to  suggest 
his  Lord. 

Man  is  essentially  a  spirit,  not  a  body.  He  has 
certain  sense  experiences,  but  he  himself  lies  soak¬ 
ing  in  a  spiritual  atmosphere,  and  there  alone  abid¬ 
ing  reality  is  found.  If  his  minister  can  give  him 
no  fellowship  in  this  spiritual  realm,  there  is  failure 
at  the  point  of  greatest  need.  If  he  can  talk  to  his 
people  about  trade  and  politics  and  wages  and 
recreation  and  never  lift  them  to  the  heights  where 


88  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


the  soul  feels  the  winds  which  blow  from  God,  the 
preacher  is  not  a  sky-pilot  at  all. 

Physically  fit,  mentally  alert,  morally  clean, 
spiritually  sound, —these  are  some  of  the  measures 
of  a  manly  man,  and  these  must  build  themselves 
into  the  make-up  of  one  who  would  successfully 
proclaim  the  gospel  message. 

In  all  of  this  the  preacher  must  be  natural,  not 
a  copy,  not  an  imitator,  not  an  eccentric,  but  true 
to  himself.  He  must  possess  sincerity,  striving  to 
practice  what  he  preaches.  He  must  be  his  mes¬ 
sage,  and  not  merely  say  it.  He  must  possess 
simplicity.  The  great  are  always  simple,  great  art, 
great  songs,  great  sermons,  great  men.  A  great 
preacher  is  one  who  can  be  understood  by  a  child, 
who  can  bring  big  truths  within  reach  of  little  peo¬ 
ple.  He  must  be  approachable  and  friendly,  not 
so  democratic  as  to  be  familiar,  for  familiarity 
soon  turns  to  contempt,  and  yet  remembering  that 
his  Master  was  the  most  democratic  of  men,  living 
in  the  open  where  any  needy  life  could  reach  Him, 
and  also  remembering  that  the  disciple  is  not 
greater  than  his  Lord.  He  must  be  useful.  What¬ 
ever  he  does  or  fails  to  do,  he  must  go  about  doing 
good.  He  must  not  be  so  absorbed  with  his  ser¬ 
mons  as  to  forget  his  people,  for  his  sermon  is  not 
the  end  of  his  ministry,  but  merely  a  means  to  an 
end. 

Nor  can  we  stop  here  in  our  discussion  of  the 
man  behind  the  message.  We  have  not  gone  yet 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  89 


far  beneath  the  surface.  We  must  take  the  subject 
to  higher  levels,  and  give  the  preacher  a  finer  set¬ 
ting,  if  he  is  to  make  his  calling  the  sublimest  voca¬ 
tion  open  to  mortals.  The  man  behind  the  message 
must  be  more  than  a  man,  than  a  manly  man,  than 
one  of  earth’s  great  men. 

Behind  Him 

He  must  have  something  behind  him.  He  must 
have  God  at  his  back.  He  must  deserve  the  name 
which  stilted  ecclesiasticism  sometimes  gives  a 
preacher.  In  the  true  sense  of  the  word  he  must 
be  a  divine. 

Christianity  does  not  start  with  man.  It  starts 
with  God.  The  Bible  does  not  open  with  “  In  the 
beginning,  man,”  but  “  In  the  beginning,  God.” 
God  is  not  the  result  of  culture.  He  is  not  a  by¬ 
product  of  human  civilization.  Religion  is  not 
something  which  man  has  evolved  as  the  race  has 
crept  out  of  the  jungle  and  slowly  crawled  up  the 
scale  of  being.  God  is  the  original  and  ultimate 
fact  of  the  universe. 

It  is  nice  for  the  preacher  to  love  everybody,  to 
be  good-natured  and  gentle  and  kind,  a  sort  of 
peripatetic  Abou  Ben  Adhem  saying:  “  Write  me 
as  one  who  loves  his  fellow-men.”  But  if  that 
mood  is  to  last  long  and  get  far,  it  must  be  fed. 
He  who  strives  to  do  good  in  the  world  merely 
because  he  loves  people  is  in  peril  of  a  set-back 
when  he  encounters  unlovable  people.  Altruistic 


90  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


impulses  must  be  nourished  from  a  higher  source 
than  human  gratitude.  The  great  servants  of  the 
world  are  not  Abou  Ben  Adhems  saying:  “  Write 
me  as  one  who  loves  his  fellow-men,”  but  St.  Pauls 
saying:  “  The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  me.” 

I  know  a  crystal  spring  on  a  mountainside  that 
gushes  out  from  under  a  great  overhanging  rock 
at  an  altitude  of  some  six  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea.  Its  crystal  waters  are  nearly  ice  cold  as  they 
meet  the  outer  air.  Around  the  spot  stand  hem¬ 
locks  and  balsams  with  thick  clumps  of  rhododen¬ 
dron  and  ivy.  Between  the  broad  slabs  of 
mountain  granite  that  floor  the  stream  which 
starts  there,  great  beds  of  fern  are  growing.  It  is 
the  birthplace  of  a  mighty  river  that  runs  down  the 
valley  and  through  the  meadows  and  across  the 
plains  to  the  distant  sea.  How  long  would  the 
river  run  if  that  spring  on  the  skyline  and  others 
like  it  that  feed  the  stream  were  to  run  dry?  It 
is  so  with  the  stream  of  human  love  that  gladdens 
and  blesses  life.  It  must  be  fed.  It  must  run  out 
of  the  heart  of  God.  No  one  can  last  long  as  a 
lover  of  men  who  refuses  to  be  a  lover  of  God. 

The  preacher’s  attitude  to  God  settles  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  power.  Until  that  is  settled,  other  things 
must  wait.  The  size  of  his  ministry  will  be  not  the 
size  of  his  preparation  or  opportunity,  not  the  size 
of  his  ability  or  scholarship,  but  the  size  of  his 
power.  It  is  with  personality  as  with  everything 
else.  Power  comes  first. 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  91 


The  big  question  for  a  factory  is  not  location 
or  equipment  or  raw  materials  or  labour  or  trans¬ 
portation  facilities  or  an  open  market.  All  these 
are  vastly  important,  but  there  is  one  thing  abso¬ 
lutely  essential.  It  is  power.  The  size  of  the 
factory  is  the  size  of  the  power  plant.  If  you 
would  double  the  factory,  you  must  increase  the 
power. 

It  is  the  same  with  personality.  Power  comes 
first, — not  culture  nor  brains  nor  position  nor  pos¬ 
sessions,  but  power.  The  size  of  a  man  is  the  size 
of  his  power.  This  is  true  in  an  especial  sense  of 
the  preacher.  Spiritual  power  is  his  biggest  asset. 
It  is  the  one  thing  the  Saviour  promised  the  first 
preachers  of  His  Gospel,  and  it  is  a  promise  which 
stands  for  all  who  come  after  them  in  the  line  of 
heralds  and  evangelists.  “  Ye  shall  have  power.” 
Christ  did  not  promise  His  Church  wealth  or  num¬ 
bers  or  station.  He  did  not  say:  “  You  shall  have 
influence,”  but  He  did  say:  “You  shall  have 
power.” 

The  secret  of  power  is  personality,  like  the  secret 
of  power  everywhere  else,  is  contact.  It  is  when 
the  wire,  whether  large  or  small,  ties  up  to  the 
dynamo  at  the  power  house,  that  it  becomes 
charged  and  transformed.  It  is  when  human  per¬ 
sonality  ties  up  to  the  Supreme  Dynamo  and  taps 
the  measureless  resources  of  power  in  God  Him¬ 
self  that  the  voltage  of  the  Almighty  discharges 
through  the  ministry  of  a  man. 


92  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


Here  is  where  some  preachers  have  failed.  They 
are  brilliant,  learned,  eloquent.  They  have  all  that 
the  schools  can  give  them.  But  they  lack  power. 
They  are  not  in  fellowship  with  God.  They  are 
not  in  contact  with  the  Almighty.  Their  pulpits 
are  powerless,  and  their  ministry  is  sterile  of  re¬ 
sults. 

The  man  is  behind  the  message  as  the  powder  is 
behind  the  ball,  but  there  must  be  something  be¬ 
hind  the  powder.  Yonder  on  the  deck  of  a  super¬ 
dreadnought  a  sixteen-inch  gun  points  its  tower  of 
gleaming  steel  at  the  fort  on  the  shore.  The  sweat¬ 
ing  marines  have  swung  the  huge  shell  in  place, 
and  the  engine  of  destruction  is  trained  with  deadly 
precision  on  the  foe.  But  it  is  harmless  thus  far. 
A  bird  may  perch  in  the  gun's  mouth  and  sing  to  its 
mate.  A  baby  may  sit  astride  the  big  cannon  and 
ride  it  as  he  would  a  toy.  Timid  women  may 
gather  about  the  huge  weapon  of  war  free  of  fear. 
Then  one  spark  of  electric  fire  leaps,  and  the  shell 
roars,  and  the  fort  falls. 

It  is  the  spark  of  fire  from  off  the  altar  that  the 
preacher  needs  to  wake  his  ministry  into  power. 
It  is  what  the  Master  promised  His  disciples  when 
He  said :  “  All  power  is  given  unto  me,  and  lo,  I 
am  with  you  alway.” 

Beside  Him 

The  man  behind  the  message  must  have  some¬ 
thing  beside  him.  He  must  have  his  fellow-man 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  93 


at  his  side.  Like  his  Saviour,  he  must  live  where 
anybody  can  get  at  him,  where  the  hunted  can  find 
him  and  the  weak  can  reach  him  and  the  needy  can 
lean  on  him.  He  must  be  more  than  a  divine.  He 
must  be  a  human. 

One  of  the  most  striking  things  about  Jesus  was 
this.  He  was  human.  He  called  Himself  “  Son  of 
man.”  On  day  He  asked  His  disciples:  “Whom 
do  men  say  that  I,  the  Son  of  man,  am?  ”  Peter 
said:  “  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,”  which  seems  to 
have  been  Peter's  way  of  saying:  “  Lord,  thou  art 
so  much  the  Son  of  man  that  we  believe  thou  art 
the  Son  of  God.  Thou  art  so  human  we  believe 
thou  art  divine.” 

Men  need  a  God  for  a  Saviour,  but  they  need  a 
man,  too,  else  God  would  never  have  become  flesh. 
The  old  myth  of  Theseus  and  Ariadne  recites  how 
when  Theseus  was  about  to  enter  the  mystic  laby¬ 
rinth  in  search  of  the  monster,  Ariadne  tied  a  silken 
thread  to  his  arm  and  let  it  unwind  as  he  went 
deeper  and  deeper  into  the  labyrinth.  As  she  told 
him  good-bye,  she  said:  “  When  you  meet  the  mon¬ 
ster  and  are  struggling  with  him  and  feel  the  pres¬ 
sure  of  this  silken  leash  upon  your  arm,  I  want  you 
to  know  that  I  am  thinking  about  you.”  The  story 
goes  on  to  say  that  at  last  when  Theseus  grappled 
with  his  antagonist,  the  gentle  pressure  of 
Ariadne's  silken  thread  made  his  arm  stronger  and 
his  heart  more  courageous,  and  helped  him  to  win 
the  victory. 


94  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


It  is  something  like  this  that  God  has  done  in  the 
human  ministry  of  Jesus.  He  has  bound  Himself 
to  us  by  the  better  than  silken  leash.  He  has  be¬ 
come  flesh  of  our  flesh  and  blood  of  our  blood. 
In  the  midst  of  life's  conflict,  we  can  feel  the  gentle 
pressure  of  His  love  and  know  that  He  is  near: 

“  'Tis  the  weakness  in  strength  that  I  cry  for !  my 
flesh  that  I  seek 

In  the  Godhead !  I  seek  and  I  find  it ;  O  Saul,  it 
shall  be 

A  Face  like  my  face  that  receives  thee,  a  Man  like 
to  me 

Thou  shalt  love  and  be  loved  by  forever;  a  Hand 
like  this  hand 

Shall  throw  open  the  gates  of  the  new  life  to  thee ! 
See  the  Christ  stand  1  ” 

It  was  because  the  world  needed  a  human 
Saviour  that  the  Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us,  and  the  preacher  who  would  lead  the 
world  back  to  God  must  be  human  enough  to  in¬ 
terpret  the  Son  of  man  to  men.  He  must  be  more 
than  a  scholarly  recluse,  a  hermit  saint.  He  must 
be  a  friend  of  man.  If  he  is  invisible  for  six  days 
in  the  week,  he  is  likely  to  be  incomprehensible 
on  the  seventh.  He  needs  himself  this  contact  with 
people.  His  sermons  must  be  humanized  if  they 
are  to  reach  sinners  and  comfort  saints  and  help 
the  weary  world  up-hill.  The  people  need  a  shep¬ 
herd  who  can  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of  their 
infirmities,  who  shares  the  common  lot,  who  in¬ 
stead  of  shunning  trouble,  seeks  it. 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  95 


The  man  behind  the  message  must  be  a  friend 
of  God,  but  he  must  be  a  friend  of  man,  too.  His 
religion  is  a  sham  unless  he  finds  it  in  his  heart  to 
pray:  “  Write  me  as  one  who  loves  his  fellow- 
men.”  “  If  a  man  say:  'I  love  God/  and  hateth 
his  brother,  he  is  a  liar,  for  he  that  loveth  not  his 
brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God 
whom  he  hath  not  seen  ?  ”  Thus  the  gentle  St. 
John  uses  a  short  and  ugly  word  to  characterize 
the  ministry  that  is  so  absorbed  with  eternity  as  to 
forget  time,  that  is  so  divine  it  cannot  be  human. 

The  world  needs  a  friend,  and  if  the  man  who  is 
supposed  to  expound  the  religion  of  love  fails  to 
be  friendly,  he  has  failed  at  the  point  of  common 
need.  The  earth  is  full  of  lonely  people.  Solitude 
is  hell.  In  a  wretched  tenement  in  a  great  city 
they  found  a  woman  who  had  taken  her  own  life. 
In  her  arms  was  a  dead  dog.  When  the  dog  died, 
her  last  friend  was  gone,  and  existence  became  un¬ 
endurable.  The  preacher  who  would  help  the 
world  must  live  close  to  it.  His  house  must  be  an 
open  door. 

“  Then  why  should  I  sit  in  the  scorner’s  seat. 

Or  hurl  the  cynic’s  ban  ? 

Let  me  live  in  my  house  by  the  side  of  the  road. 
And  be  a  friend  to  man.” 

Before  Him 

The  man  behind  the  message  must  have  some¬ 
thing  before  him.  He  must  keep  the  needy  world 


96  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


in  sight.  He  must  see  what  Christ  always  saw 
when  He  looked  out  on  life,  what  He  saw  that  day 
when  He  beheld  the  multitude  and  was  moved  with 
compassion  because  they  were  as  sheep  not  having 
a  shepherd,  what  He  saw  that  day  when  He 
stooped  down  and  wrote  in  the  sand,  and  said  to  a 
girl  of  the  streets  waiting  to  be  sentenced: 
“  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee ;  go  and  sin  no  more.” 

The  preacher  who  cannot  be  stirred  by  the  spec¬ 
tacle  of  human  need  would  best  quit  preaching  until 
God  opens  blind  eyes.  His  message  will  lack 
heart  as  well  as  power  unless  he  loves  people  and 
carries  in  his  arms  the  woes  and  sorrows  of  a  hurt 
world. 

But  he  must  see  more  than  the  wreck.  He  must 
look  past  ruin  to  redemption  and  catch  sight  of 
what  the  world  will  be  when  God  has  His  way  with 
it.  He  needs  vision  to  see  shining  before  him, 
splendid  and  glorious,  the  coming  kingdom.  With¬ 
out  this  vision,  his  message  will  dwindle  and 
change  from  a  shout  of  hope  to  a  wail  of  despair. 
Of  all  men  the  Christian  minister  should  be  an 
optimist,  a  prophet  of  the  morning,  an  apostle  of 
the  dawn.  He  must  see  the  wreck,  but  he  must 
look  past  it  to  the  coming  kingdom.  This  vision 
will  save  him  from  being  spoiled  by  success  or  de¬ 
pressed  by  defeat.  A  great  soul  is  one  who  can 
sweat  drops  of  blood  in  Gethsemane,  and  say: 
“  Thy  will  be  done,”  and  also  one  who  can  rise 
from  the  rent  tomb  calling  to  a  few  common  fish- 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  97 


ermen  with  his  heart  on  his  lips:  “  Do  you  love 
me  ?  ”  Such  composure  as  this  comes  only  to  those 
who  lean  on  God  and  have  caught  a  clear  vision  of 
what  is  waiting  for  the  world  at  the  end  of  the 
road. 

The  world  needs  a  preacher  who  does  not  wor¬ 
ship  success,  who  has  seen  far  enough  into  the  un¬ 
seen  to  discover  that  failures  are  often  life’s  su¬ 
preme  achievements.  He  must  have  some  of  the 
spirit  Paul  had  when  he  said:  “  A  great  and  ef¬ 
fectual  door  is  open  unto  me,  and  there  are  many 
adversaries,”  some  of  the  unconquerable  en¬ 
thusiasm  Christ  means  to  give  when  He  says:  “  In 
the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation,  but  courage,  I 
have  overcome  the  world !  ” 

Within  Him 

The  man  behind  the  message  must  have  his  mes¬ 
sage  not  only  on  his  lips,  but  in  his  heart.  Of 
course  he  must  be  a  converted  man.  He  is  not 
likely  to  lead  his  people  where  he  does  not  go  him¬ 
self.  An  unconverted  preacher  can  deliver  ser¬ 
mons,  but  they  lack  realism.  They  are  without 
prophetic  fire.  There  is  a  difference  between  a 
preacher  and  a  pulpiteer.  To  the  pulpiteer  the 
sermon  is  a  performance.  To  the  preacher  it  is  his 
soul  going  out  in  speech. 

“  What  is  the  subject  of  your  sermon  for  next 
Sunday?”  was  the  question  a  certain  minister’s 
wife  was  in  the  habit  of  asking  her  husband.  One 


98  THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE 


day  she  startled  him  by  asking:  “  What  is  the  ob¬ 
ject  of  your  sermon?”  It  changed  his  ministry. 
Preaching  is  a  passion,  not  a  performance,  to  the 
man  whose  soul  is  afire  for  God  and  for  the  salva¬ 
tion  of  souls,  but  unless  this  fire  burns  within  him, 
his  message  will  dwindle  to  dull  routine. 

The  preacher  must  not  stop  with  his  conversion. 
He  needs  to  get  acquainted  with  God,  to  acquire, 
not  an  easy  familiarity,  but  that  sacred  intimacy 
which  comes  from  the  practice  of  the  prayer  life. 
“  I  never  like  a  man,”  says  one  of  Barrie’s  char¬ 
acters,  “  who  speaks  of  God  in  his  prayers  as  if 
the  Almighty  were  just  around  the  corner.”  To 
know  God  is  not  to  be  devoid  of  reverence,  but  to 
know  Him  aright  is  to  face  Him  without  fear. 

There  is  more  than  this  sacred  intimacy  for  the 
preacher  to  build  into  his  personal  experience. 
“  Have  ye  received  the  Holy  Ghost  since  ye  be¬ 
lieved  ?  ”  was  the  question  which  Paul  asked  of 
the  Ephesian  elders,  and  which  every  preacher 
should  be  able  to  answer  for  himself  with  an  un¬ 
qualified  affirmative.  If  he  is  to  have  the  gift  of 
tongues  and  preach  with  power,  his  heart  must  be¬ 
come  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Above  all  else,  the  man  behind  the  message  must 
so  have  the  cross  as  a  personal  experience  that  he 
can  say:  “I  am  crucified  with  Christ.”  It  is  well 
to  have  the  cross  as  a  conviction,  to  believe  in  the 
story  of  Christ’s  suffering,  to  subscribe  to  the 
atonement,  to  sing  of  the  green  hill  far  away ;  but 


THE  MAN  BEHIND  THE  MESSAGE  99 


we  sin  against  the  cross  if  we  make  it  a  mere 
dogma. 

It  must  be  the  preacher’s  profoundest  experi¬ 
ence, — not  the  cross  on  the  church  spire,  not  the 
cross  in  gold  and  precious  stones,  not  the  cross  in 
a  cathedral  window,  but  the  cross  in  a  consecrated 
life  is  the  sign  of  a  conquering  ministry.  “  I  bear 
about  in  my  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus,” 
said  the  greatest  of  preachers. 

This  is  what  drives  and  burns  its  way  through 
the  hard,  skeptical,  sarcastic,  sinning  world.  This 
is  what  sustains  the  messenger,  and  gives  reality 
to  his  message.  When  Calvary  has  become  a  per¬ 
sonal  experience,  when  its  passion  has  been  dis¬ 
solved  into  the  preacher’s  blood  and  he  can  say: 
“  I  die  daily,”  it  is  finished.  There  is  nothing  left 
to  fear,  and  already  the  chant  of  victory  is  singing 
down  from  the  glory  heights. 

There  is  a  lovely  story  told  of  Chinese  Gordon’s 
last  day  in  London  before  sailing  for  Egypt.  It 
was  the  Sabbath,  and  he  spent  the  day  going  from 
church  to  church  receiving  the  communion  as  often 
as  he  could.  He  wanted  the  tragedy  of  Calvary  to 
stamp  itself  with  undying  power  on  his  soul,  for  he 
was  going  out  to  his  Calvary,  too,  and  he  went  out 
unafraid.  “  Tell  all  Khartoum,”  was  his  dying 
message,  “  that  Gordon  knows  not  fear,  because 
God  made  him  without  fear.” 

And  so  the  man  behind  the  message  must  be  a 
knight  of  the  Holy  Grail.  He  must  be  a  soldier  of 
the  Cross! 


VI 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


THE  preacher  is  not  a  piece  of  pious  stat¬ 
uary  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord.  The  day 
of  special  privileges  for  the  clergy  is 
gone.  Let  us  not  lament  the  fact,  but  rather  re¬ 
joice.  Time  was  when  a  minister  was  respected 
because  of  the  cloth  he  wore.  Now  if  he  wins  and 
retains  respect,  it  must  be  for  what  he  is,  for  the 
good  he  does,  and  for  the  service  he  renders. 
“  Paul  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,”  was  the  way  a 
great  preacher  introduced  himself  to  Rome,  and 
twenty  centuries  later  it  is  the  only  kind  of  intro¬ 
duction  that  gets  the  right  of  way. 

Therefore  the  preacher  must  not  pose.  He  must 
be  a  man  of  action,  and  his  activities  are  not  to  be 
protected  by  special  legislation.  No  eight-hour  day 
for  him.  Whenever  the  call  comes  for  his  services 
at  any  hour  of  day  or  night,  he  must  be  ready. 
He  must  live  where  he  is  easily  accessible  to  the 
people.  The  manse  must  be  “  a  house  by  the  side 
of  the  road,”  and  the  preacher  must  be  “  a  friend 
of  man.” 

The  old  prophets  were  fond  of  calling  them¬ 
selves  “  the  Lord’s  standing  servants.”  It  was  an 
Eastern  custom  for  the  monarch  always  to  have  at 


IOO 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


101 


least  one  servant  standing  near  the  throne,  so  that 
when  a  message  was  to  be  sent  or  a  deed  done,  the 
servant  would  not  even  need  to  arise  to  do  the 
king’s  business.  It  is  such  speedy  and  eager  serv¬ 
ice  the  old  prophet  would  give  the  King  of  Kings 
when  he  said:  “As  the  Lord  God  of  hosts  liveth 
before  whom  I  stand.”  It  is  what  every  preacher 
should  be,  a  standing  servant,  not  a  saint  in  repose, 
but  a  man  of  action,  not  reluctant  and  exclusive, 
wasting  life  in  some  holy  retreat  or  dimly  lighted 
cell,  but  ready  and  eager  to  make  his  life  count  for 
God  and  men. 

As  a  man  of  action,  there  are  three  aspects  of  his 
calling  to  consider, — his  resources,  his  methods, 
and  his  contacts. 


Resources 

What  are  the  resources  for  the  preacher  in  ac¬ 
tion?  On  what  may  he  draw  to  do  his  work? 
His  is  the  greatest  calling.  As  he  seeks  to  dis¬ 
charge  its  high  duties,  what  has  he  in  hand  with 
which  to  meet  his  obligations  ?  What  is  a  preach¬ 
er’s  working  capital  ? 

The  first  to  be  named  are  his  gifts,  or  his  gift. 
One  of  the  striking  things  about  the  gospel  minis¬ 
try  is  that  it  can  capitalize  any  gift  one  may  pos¬ 
sess,  and  use  it  for  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel 
and  the  building  of  the  kingdom.  It  is  a  mistake 
to  conclude  that  before  one  can  be  a  successful 
preacher  he  must  have  the  gift  of  eloquence.  Ora- 


102 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


tory  is  not  to  be  despised.  Speaking  ability  is  to 
be  cultivated.  But  some  of  the  world’s  most  suc¬ 
cessful  preachers  have  not  possessed  this  gift. 

“  Oh,  my  Lord,  I  am  not  eloquent,”  was  the  way 
Moses  tried  to  evade  the  call.  But  God  said: 
“  Certainly  I  will  be  with  thee.”  He  says  the 
same  to  everyone  who  goes  forth  in  His  name. 
When  lips  that  stammer  are  touched  with  a  live 
coal  from  off  the  altar  the  message  will  flame. 
When  tongues  that  were  dumb  are  baptized  with 
Pentecostal  power  the  people  will  hear  in  their  own 
language  the  wonderful  works  of  God. 

There  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  gospel 
ministry  needs  them  all,  and  can  use  them,  in  giv¬ 
ing  a  bankrupt  world  the  message  of  salvation. 
One  man  has  business  ability,  another  organizing 
genius,  another  personal  magnetism,  another  the 
gift  of  teaching,  and  another  the  gift  of  exhorta¬ 
tion.  One  possesses  initiative,  another  executive 
ability,  one  vision,  and  another  caution.  One  is  es¬ 
pecially  successful  in  developing  the  spiritual  life  of 
believers,  and  another  in  leading  the  unsaved  to  a 
decision.  One  has  the  gift  of  promoting  fellowship 
in  the  church,  and  another  of  relating  the  church 
to  the  community.  All  are  needed,  and  all  these 
gifts  and  many  others  find  full  room  for  finest 
service  in  the  great  calling. 

Is  not  this  what  Paul  meant  when  he  wrote  to 
the  church  in  Corinth  and  said:  “  To  one  is  given 
by  the  Spirit  the  word  of  wisdom,  to  another  the 


THE  PEEACHEE  IN  ACTION 


103 


word  of  knowledge  by  the  same  Spirit,  to  another 
faith  by  the  same  Spirit”?  “Gifts  of  healing,” 
“  miracles,”  “  prophecy,”  “  discerning  of  spirits,” 
“  divers  kinds  of  tongues,”  “  interpretation  of 
tongues.”  “  But  all  these  worketh  that  one  and 
the  selfsame  Spirit  dividing  to  every  man  severally 
as  he  will.” 

If  you  will  stand  on  the  pier  at  Lambert's  Point 
and  look  out  on  Hampton  Roads,  you  can  see  the 
boats  going  in  all  directions.  Some  are  bound  for 
the  docks  and  some  for  the  open  sea.  Some  are 
steaming  up  near-by  rivers  to  discharge  their  car¬ 
goes  at  quiet  little  landings,  and  some  will  not  drop 
anchor  until  they  have  crossed  world  oceans  and 
reached  busy  ports  where  people  with  strange  faces 
and  foreign  tongues  await  their  coming. 

But  it  is  the  same  power  that  drives  them  all, 
whether  they  sail  north  or  south,  or  east  or  west, 
or  far  or  near.  It  is  the  way  each  boat  applies  the 
power  that  determines  the  direction,  and  the  same 
holds  in  human  life.  There  are  many  gifts;  there 
is  but  one  Spirit.  Each  life  has  its  definite  mis¬ 
sion.  It  will  move  on  to  its  accomplishment  as  its 
gifts  are  surrendered  to  the  dominion  and  driving 
power  of  God's  Spirit. 

The  work  is  wide.  The  ports  of  human  life  are 
many.  “  The  field  is  the  world.”  “  There  is  glory 
enough  for  us  all,”  whatever  our  gift  may  be.  The 
humblest  talent  may  be  dedicated  to  God  and  cap¬ 
italized  in  the  work  of  world  redemption.  God  has 


104 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


made  no  two  trees  alike,  no  two  leaves  on  the  same 
tree  exactly  alike,  nor  has  He  made  two  human 
lives  alike.  Each  personality  possesses  its  indi¬ 
vidual  gift,  and  somewhere  a  port  is  waiting  for  a 
sail  whose  waters  were  charted  of  God  for  my  frail 
bark.  May  it  not  wait  in  vain ! 

The  preacher’s  preparation  for  the  great  calling 
is  a  part  of  his  working  capital.  Because  the  first 
heralds  of  the  cross  were  called  from  their  boats 
and  nets  to  follow  Christ  and  fish  for  men,  some 
conclude  that  anyone  anywhere  and  at  any  time, 
without  further  preparation  or  professional  train¬ 
ing,  may  qualify  to  be  a  preacher.  It  is  a  mistake. 

It  is  this  idea  that  has  released  on  the  world  the 
half-baked  revivalist  whose  motives  may  be  the 
best,  but  whose  message  is  oftentimes  one-sided 
and  inadequate.  It  is  this  idea  also  that  is  re¬ 
sponsible  for  the  multiplication  of  individualistic 
groups  of  religionists  whose  spiritual  development 
is  retarded  because  under-nourished,  and  whose 
pious  activities  are  devoted  largely  to  controversy 
and  the  promotion  of  some  small  quite  sectarian 
issue. 

It  is  true  that  one  needs  but  to  know  the  Saviour 
to  become  a  witness,  but  to  be  a  preacher  he  needs 
to  know  his  message,  and  to  escape  being  switched 
from  fundamentals  to  side-issues  and  non-essen¬ 
tials,  he  needs  to  know  his  message  well.  True,  the 
first  preachers  were  Galilean  fishermen,  but  they 
spent  three  years  in  the  school  of  Christ  under  the 


105 


/  / 

THE  PBEACHEE  IE  ACTION 

&  i 

tuition  of  the  Master  Himself.  They  were  pre¬ 
pared. 

The  young  preacher  makes  a  mistake  who  is  so 
eager  to  get  to  his  work  that  he  shortens  his  pe¬ 
riod  of  preparation.  He  is  to  be  a  leader  of  men 
in  a  realm  where  the  mind  thinks  its  highest 
thoughts,  the  soul  is  suffused  by  its  sublimest  as¬ 
pirations,  the  heart  is  stirred  by  its  profoundest 
convictions,  the  will  is  motived  by  the  noblest  pur¬ 
poses,  and  life  functions  in  activities  at  once  the 
most  human  and  the  most  divine.  He  must  be  no 
novice. 

He  must  be  “  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be 
ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth.”  He 
will  do  well  to  seek  his  preparation  at  the  feet  of 
scholars  as  renowned  for  their  piety  as  for  their 
learning,  who  can  teach  him  the  letter  of  the  law, 
but  who  will  not  fail  to  impart  to  him  its  spirit, 
and  who  will  send  him  out  to  a  needy  world  not 
only  knowing,  but  knowing  that  he  knows. 

A  preacher  thus  prepared  will  not  be  found  cul¬ 
tivating  doubts  instead  of  faiths,  undermining  the 
message  he  was  called  to  proclaim.  He  will  not 
give  men  a  stone  when  they  ask  for  bread.  He 
will  have  not  negations  but  positions.  It  is  such  a 
preacher  with  a  positive  message  for  whom  men 
wait  to  show  them  the  road  to  God.  They  will 
follow  him,  but  “  a  stranger  will  they  not  follow.” 

A  third  element  in  the  preacher’s  working  capital 
is  hard  work.  He  must  not  be  expecting  miracles 


106  THE  PEEACHEE  IN  ACTION 

\ 

to  relieve  him  of  the  necessity  of  doing  with  his 
might  whatsoever  his  hands  find  to  do.  Work, 
work,  work,  is  the  preacher’s  program,  work  of 
head  and  heart,  of  hands  and  feet,  of  soul  and 
sympathy.  There  must  be  enlisted  in  his  calling 
every  power  and  fibre  of  his  being.  He  must  have 
no  stale  hours.  He  is  in  a  business  not  where  men 
wear  out,  but  burn  out,  and  the  flame  must  be  kept 
bright. 

He  will  get  tired,  but  he  must  never  grow  weary, 
never  so  tired  that  he  loses  his  enthusiasm,  his 
faith,  his  courage,  his  glow.  He  must  never  be  so 
weary  but  he  is  ready  when  need  rings  his  door¬ 
bell  or  sin  cries  to  be  shown  the  way  from  the  far 
country  back  home.  He  has  meat  to  eat  that  the 
world  knows  not  of.  He  must  therefore  not  grow 
weary  in  well-doing,  for  in  due  season  he  will  reap 
if  he  faints  not. 

Sometime  everything  surrenders  to  work.  It  is 
not  the  man  of  genius  who  wins,  but  the  steady 
worker.  It  is  not  the  brilliant  pulpiteer,  but  the 
honest  worker  who  toils  on,  declining  to  do  shoddy 
work,  turning  aside  from  the  lure  of  easy  paths, 
deaf  to  calls  that  would  take  him  from  his  task, 
steadfast  in  the  determination  to  do  his  best.  His 
gifts  may  be  mediocre,  but  if  his  work  be  thorough 
and  sincere,  he  cannot  fail. 

It  was  not  a  curse,  but  a  blessing,  when  God  said 
to  man  at  the  gate  of  the  lost  Eden:  “  In  the  sweat 
of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread.”  Work  builds  a 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


107 


new  Eden.  Work  is  a  secret  of  Paradise  regained. 
God  works,  and  His  servants  are  co-workers  with 
Him. 


“  This  is  the  gospel  of  labour, 

Ring  it,  ye  bells  of  the  kirk. 

The  Lord  of  love  came  down  from 
above 

To  live  with  the  men  who  work.” 

But  the  preacher  has  more  than  all  this  in  his 
resources.  We  have  not  yet  tapped  his  real  reser¬ 
voir  of  power.  His  greatest  assets  are  unseen.  They 
are  spiritual,  and  he  acquires  them  through  faith. 
The  preacher  in  action  must  be  a  man  of  prayer. 
He  must  be  practical,  a  strenuous  worker,  but  he 
must  be  spiritual,  a  devout  mystic.  He  must  live 
in  constant,  unbroken  fellowship  with  God. 

“  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,”  was  Christ’s  word 
to  the  first  band  as  they  broke  away.  It  is  this 
Unseen  Presence  that  enriches  and  underwrites  the 
gospel  ministry.  Here  is  where  the  preacher  finds 
his  renewal.  Here  is  his  source  of  strength  and 
courage.  “  All  power  is  given  unto  me,  and  lo,  I 
am  with  you  alway.”  From  his  knees  and  that 
contact  the  preacher  rises  ready  and  unafraid. 

In  the  English  and  Scotch  universities  it  used 
to  be  the  custom  for  lower  classmen  to  engage  in 
horse-play  at  the  expense  of  dignitaries  who  were 
on  the  stage  at  commencement  seasons  to  receive 
honorary  degrees.  On  David  Livingstone’s  return 


108 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


from  sixteen  years  of  stern  work  in  Africa,  the 
University  of  Glasgow  desired  to  confer  on  him 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws.  The  students  had 
come  equipped  for  the  usual  frolic,  but  when 
Livingstone  stood  before  them,  his  gaunt  form 
worn  by  his  life  in  the  bush,  his  face  seamed  with 
lines  of  suffering  and  care,  and  bronzed  by  the 
hot  African  sun,  his  arm  lamed  by  a  lion’s  bite, 
hanging  limp  and  helpless  at  his  side,  they  forgot 
to  tease,  and  standing,  cheered  the  tanned  and 
fever-marked  hero  of  the  desert.  Livingstone  be¬ 
gan  to  plead  with  them  to  devote  their  lives  to  the 
work  which  had  taken  him  to  Africa.  They  grew 
thoughtful,  and  then  a  hush  that  could  be  felt  came 
over  those  gay  students  as  he  said:  “  Shall  I  tell 
you  what  sustained  me  in  my  exiled  life  among 
strangers  whose  language  I  did  not  understand? 
It  was  this  that  confronted  me  at  all  times.  4  Lo, 
I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world.’  ” 

This  is  the  guerdon  of  every  true  herald  of  the 
cross,  whether  in  the  bush  of  an  African  wilder¬ 
ness  or  amid  the  congested  and  restless  throngs  of 
a  great  city.  The  preacher  in  action  is  never  alone. 
As  he  goes  on,  he  is  ever  attended  by  the  Unseen, 
and  as  he  goes  on,  the  way  clears,  the  dark  be¬ 
comes  plain,  the  difficult  easy,  and  the  impossible 
actual,  for  the  Unseen  Who  walks  and  works  with 
him  has  already  overcome  the  world. 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


109 


Methods 

The  preacher  does  not  learn  to  preach  out  of 
books  any  more  than  the  lawyer  or  doctor  or  mer¬ 
chant  or  mechanic.  He  learns  to  preach  by  being 
a  preacher.  This  is  not  taking  back  what  was  said 
about  the  value  of  preparation.  It  is  merely  re¬ 
membering  that  training  ceases  to  be  a  frozen 
asset  and  becomes  liquid  power  as  it  is  used. 
David  went  on  going  and  growing.  It  is  the  way 
with  the  servant  of  the  Lord.  He  grows  as  he 
goes,  and  he  goes  as  he  grows.  He  will  find  the 
clouds  lifting  and  the  skies  clearing  as  he  rides  into 
the  storm,  but  he  will  do  well  to  move  to  his  work 
in  an  orderly  way. 

While  he  is  divinely  attended,  he  is  but  one  man. 
He  goes  up  against  a  not  always  friendly  world. 
He  faces  an  age  of  doubt.  He  must  encounter 
criticism,  indifference,  hostility.  The  powers  of 
evil  never  sleep.  u  We  wrestle  not  against  flesh 
and  blood,  but  against  principalities  and  powers, 
against  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world.,, 
This  is  nothing  to  lament.  It  elated  Paul,  who  in 
a  gay  way  said:  “A  great  and  effectual  door  is 
open  unto  me,  and  there  are  many  adversaries.” 

Since,  however,  the  field  of  foes  is  so  full  and 
there  is  so  much  to  be  done,  there  must  be  no 
waste.  The  preacher  must  assemble  his  resources 
so  as  to  make  them  count  for  the  most.  He  must 
economize  his  time,  his  strength,  his  voice,  his 
nervous  energy,  his  every  power  and  gift  and  as- 


110 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


set,  so  as  to  make  his  capital  yield  the  largest  re¬ 
turns.  He  is  in  the  King’s  business,  and  there 
should  be  no  lost  motion  in  his  ministry. 

There  are  two  things  he  will  need  to  keep  to  the 
fore,  however  he  may  organize  his  work  and  what¬ 
ever  may  be  his  program  of  service.  He  must 
cultivate  a  sense  of  values.  All  kinds  of  oppor¬ 
tunities  will  offer.  He  will  be  asked  to  speak  on 
every  sort  of  an  occasion,  and  to  lend  his  time  and 
influence  to  a  variety  of  movements.  Some  of 
these  are  a  waste  of  time.  Others  are  important, 
but  not  from  the  standpoint  of  his  mission.  Still 
others  offer  a  real  chance  for  service,  while  a  few 
are  big  with  opportunity.  He  must  select  the  best. 
He  cannot  afford  to  fritter  away  his  energies  on 
things  that  do  not  count.  Many  a  preacher  has 
been  busy,  but  when  he  has  summed  up  the  day’s 
activities,  they  total  nothing.  He  has  crowded  his 
calendar  with  engagements  of  no  value  to  the 
kingdom. 

The  other  particular  on  which  he  should  be  on 
guard  is  always  to  meet  people  on  a  spiritual  basis. 
This  does  not  mean  that  he  is  to  be  everlastingly 
talking  religion,  but  he  is  a  minister  to  the  souls 
of  men,  and  if  he  ignore  this,  he  is  a  disappoint¬ 
ment.  People  expect  him  to  drag  them  up  toward 
heights  that  are  finer  and  cleaner.  He  has  sold  out 
for  a  poor  price  if,  to  win  a  sort  of  popularity,  he 
has  run  with  the  crowd.  “  You  have  talked  to  me 
about  everything  else,”  said  a  dying  business  man 


THE  PEEACHEE  IN  ACTION 


111 


to  his  preacher,  “  but  I  wanted  you  to  say  some¬ 
thing  about  my  soul  and  the  future.” 

The  preacher  must  be  a  student.  He  cannot 
hope  to  lead  unless  he  is  abreast  of  the  thought  of 
his  day.  I  do  not  mean  that  he  must  accept  all 
that  his  age  holds,  but  he  must  know  what  people 
are  thinking,  and  interpret  his  message  in  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  life. 

He  must  have  more  on  his  library  table  than  the 
morning  paper,  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal,  and 
the  Saturday  Evening  Post .  An  intellect  fed  on 
such  pabulum  will  never  stir  the  world,  and  yet 
how  can  a  minister  be  a  student  in  this  age  ?  The 
days  of  miracles  are  over.  Some  give  it  up.  They 
devote  themselves  to  doing  good.  They  are  good 
mixers.  But  their  sermons  are  thin,  and  the  con¬ 
gregations  soon  take  on  the  consistency  of  the 
sermon. 

This  is  not  saying  that  the  preacher  should  be 
bookish.  Certainly  he  should  not  be  what  college 
boys  call  “  a  greasy  grind,”  “  sicklied  o’er  with  the 
pale  cast  of  thought  ” ;  but  if  he  is  to  keep  from 
repeating  himself,  if  he  is  to  command  the  respect 
of  his  congregation,  if  he  is  to  capture  and  hold 
the  intellectual  people  of  his  community,  and  if  he 
is  to  be  honest  with  himself  and  avoid  the  perils 
which  yawn  for  the  crank  and  the  fanatic,  the 
preacher  must  be  a  student.  He  need  not  be  afraid 
of  going  over  the  heads  of  the  people.  He  is  in 
greater  danger  of  staying  under  their  feet. 


112 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


What  of  the  sermon  ?  This  is  the  storm  center 
of  the  preacher’s  concern.  It  deserves  all  the  con¬ 
cern  it  gets,  for  the  preacher  who  fails  in  his  ser¬ 
mon  fails.  His  people  will  stand  almost  anything 
but  slack  work  in  sermon  preparation.  He  may 
fail  as  an  organizer,  as  a  pastor,  as  a  “  mixer,”  as 
a  social  star,  as  a  community  builder,  but  if  the 
sermon  scores,  the  preacher  wins.  The  preacher 
will  be  pondering  the  “  sermon  ”  until  the  trumpet 
sounds,  and  what  requires  volumes  cannot  be 
treated  in  a  paragraph.  Nevertheless,  at  least  the 
place  of  the  sermon  in  the  preacher’s  program  may 
be  set  down  here.  He  must  cultivate  the  sermonic 
mood,  ever  on  the  outlook  for  themes  and  illustra¬ 
tions,  and  having  an  imagination  that  swiftly  and 
keenly  responds  to  life.  His  pulpit  is  his  throne. 
Some  preachers  have  ruled  the  land  more  nearly 
than  kings  and  presidents — John  Calvin,  John 
Knox,  John  Wesley.  It  was  a  preacher  in  the  per¬ 
son  of  Dr.  Palmer  of  New  Orleans  who  with  a 
single  sermon  dealt  a  death  blow  to  the  iniquitous 
Louisiana  state  lottery. 

The  preacher  should  respect  his  pulpit.  It  is 
where  he  stands  to  speak  for  God,  where  God 
authenticates  His  servant.  It  is  the  place  where 
heaven  and  earth  meet.  It  should  be  entered  rev¬ 
erently,  but  not  with  ostentatious  devotion.  It  is 
no  place  for  a  mountebank,  an  actor,  or  even  an 
entertainer.  It  is  at  home  only  to  an  ambassador 
of  the  most  high  God. 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


113 


In  delivering  his  message,  the  preacher  should 
be  free  from  eccentricities  and  from  pulpit  tricks 
and  mannerisms.  The  most  effective  form  of  pub¬ 
lic  speaking  is  the  conversational.  It  holds  the  at¬ 
tention,  and  it  does  not  tire.  There  are  preachers 
who  mistake  noise  for  power,  and  who  remind 
one  of  that  line  in  Horace:  “  If  I  can’t  bend  the 
gods  above,  I’ll  rouse  all  hell  below.”  These  sons 
of  thunder  should  remember  that  “  The  shallows 
murmur,  but  the  deeps  are  dumb.” 

There  are  three  methods  of  delivering  a  sermon, 
— memoriter,  reading,  and  extemporaneous.  The 
memory  method  is  the  poorest,  the  extemporaneous 
the  best.  Each  preacher  must  work  out  his  own 
salvation  in  these  matters,  and  if  he  decides  to  be 
an  extemporaneous  preacher,  he  will  work  it  out 
with  fear  and  trembling. 

For  the  first  two  years  of  my  ministry,  I  suf¬ 
fered  severely  from  cramp  colic  after  the  Sunday 
night  service.  My  wife,  who  was  a  novice  at 
housekeeping,  worried  greatly,  fearing  that  the 
preacher  was  not  being  properly  rationed.  I  now 
know  it  was  nerves.  I  was  trying  to  learn  to 
preach  without  a  manuscript. 

The  preacher  is  wise  who  selects  great  themes 
for  his  sermons.  He  may  not  have  a  great  sermon, 
but  if  the  theme  be  great,  it  will  lift  the  sermon. 
He  should  be  especially  on  his  guard  against  topics 
which  belittle  the  message.  Here  are  some  sermon 
topics  which  have  been  advertised  as  Sunday 


114 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


themes:  “The  Ass  Tied  at  the  Door  Without;” 
“Swat  the  Fly;”  “Three  White  Mice;” 
“  Psycho-Metric  Reading;  ”  “  The  Doll-Makers  of 
Nuremburg;”  “A  Man  with  His  Nose  Out  of 
Joint;  ”  “  Wobbling;  ”  “  My  Mother-in-law ;  ”  “  A 
Big  Hug;”  “Street  Car  Ventilation;”  “Two 
Looks  at  Another  Man’s  Wife.”  It  is  a  dull  trout 
that  can  be  caught  with  such  flies. 

The  aim  of  the  sermon  is  the  matter  of  chief 
importance.  Aim  marks  the  difference  between  a 
machine  and  a  slag  dump,  between  the  universe 
and  chaos.  It  was  because  God  had  a  purpose  that 
nothing  became  something  and  the  void  was  filled. 
To  be  sure  God  can  work  wonders  with  any  sort 
of  a  sermon.  But  for  this,  the  preacher’s  plight 
would  be  hopeless.  Charles  PI.  Spurgeon  at  the 
close  of  a  sermon  which  he  felt  to  be  an  utter 
failure  is  said  to  have  prayed:  “  O  Lord,  Thou  art 
great ;  Thou  canst  do  all  things ;  Thou  canst  make 
something  out  of  nothing;  bless  that  sermon.”  It 
is  a  prayer  all  preachers  need  often  to  offer. 

The  true  aim  of  preaching  is  to  bring  men  into 
saving  fellowship  with  God  through  Jesus  Christ, 
and  to  develop  them  until  their  characters  are 
Christlike  and  their  activities  are  devoted  to  a  life 
of  service.  This  is  the  test  of  a  sermon.  Failing 
here,  however  profound  or  eloquent  it  may  be,  it 
has  failed.  Succeeding  here,  whatever  it  may  have 
lacked  it  has  been  saying  “  a  gude  word  for  Jesus 
Christ.” 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


115 


The  preacher  has  not  finished  when  he  has  de¬ 
livered  his  sermon.  He  is  more  than  a  preacher. 
He  is  always  a  witness,  which  means  that  God  has 
called  him  to  do  more  than  deliver  a  discourse. 
He  has  called  him  to  be  a  soul-winner,  and  in  the 
vast  majority  of  cases,  he  will  find  that  it  is  not 
the  sermon  but  the  personal  touch  that  wins  his 
man. 

The  preacher  who  is  not  a  personal  worker  will 
find  his  pulpit  becoming  an  ice-pack.  His  sermons, 
though  intellectual,  will  be  cold.  It  is  the  message 
hot  from  the  heart,  that  is  afire  with  the  passion 
for  souls,  that  burns  its  way  home.  And  so  the 
preacher’s  methods  are  woefully  incomplete  if  they 
make  no  provision  for  personal  evangelism. 
Greater  perhaps  than  any  sermon  Christ  ever 
preached  was  what  He  said  to  a  sinning  woman 
as  He  sat  one  day  on  the  coping  of  Jacob’s  well 
and  told  her  about  the  water  of  life.  He  saved 
her,  and  through  her  the  town  was  saved. 

Contacts 

The  third  aspect  of  his  work  to  consider  as  the 
preacher  gets  into  action  is  that  of  contacts.  Some¬ 
one  has  said  that  religion  is  just  right  relations. 
It  is  that,  and  probably  much  more.  If  the 
preacher  is  to  do  his  best  work,  he  must  not  only 
translate  all  his  assets  into  liquid  power,  he  must 
not  only  use  the  best  methods  in  building  his  pro¬ 
gram,  but  he  must  relate  himself  aright  to  all 


116 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


whom  he  would  influence  and  use  for  God  and  the 
kingdom. 

The  preacher's  “  inner  circle  ”  is  composed  of 
his  church  officials.  It  is  of  prime  importance  that 
he  relate  himself  aright  to  them.  They  should  be¬ 
come  his  greatest  human  comfort.  They  may  be¬ 
come  his  despair  and  defeat.  It  is  for  the  preacher 
himself  largely  to  decide. 

He  will  have  all  kinds  of  types  and  tempera¬ 
ments  to  deal  with.  There  will  be  radicals  and 
conservatives,  liberals  and  reactionaries,  high 
churchmen  and  low,  the  man  who  feels  that  the 
way  it  has  been  done  is  good  enough  for  him  and 
the  man  whose  constant  prayer  is  for  something 
unusual.  It  is  likely  that  among  them  will  be  at 
least  one  whose  right  to  a  seat  is  like  that  of  the 
Scotchman  who  said  he  could  “  sit  in  the  sassion 
and  object  whenever  anything  was  proposed.” 

To  make  these  men  his  friends,  to  capture  their 
loyalty,  to  secure  their  support  of  his  leadership, 
and  to  use  their  varied  gifts  in  the  work  of  the 
church  is  the  preacher’s  task.  He  needs  to  be 
“  wise  as  a  serpent  and  harmless  as  a  dove.”  Yet 
the  case  is  not  so  difficult  as  it  might  seem.  Usu¬ 
ally  these  men  are  not  only  ready  but  eager  to 
follow  a  real  leader  whom  they  discover  to  be  not 
a  time-server,  but  sincerely  devoted  to  Christ’s 
work. 

He  should  be  patient,  and  he  must  be  fair.  The 
official  meetings  are  no  place  for  ministerial  ar- 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


117 


rogance.  The  fact  that  the  man  in  the  pulpit 
speaks  ex  cathedra  unconsciously  tends  to  make 
him  feel  that  all  his  deliverances  are  to  be  accepted 
without  dissent.  With  his  officers  he  should  coun¬ 
sel,  not  command.  He  may  often  be  within  his 
constitutional  rights,  but  it  is  not  wise  to  fall  back 
on  rights  as  a  last  resort.  It  is  good  to  possess 
power,  but  he  is  wise  who  declines  to  use  all  the 
power  he  possesses. 

Let  the  preacher  be  careful  to  stick  to  the  con¬ 
stitution,  to  do  things  in  an  orderly  way,  to  decline 
to  go  over  the  heads  of  people  to  whom  certain 
work  has  been  assigned.  Only  thus  can  he  hope  to 
build  up  a  strong  organization. 

There  should  be  no  effort  to  carry  measures  by 
methods  that  are  more  political  than  religious. 
Each  member  of  the  Board  should  be  given  the 
fullest  opportunity  for  expressing  his  views.  Then 
when  the  vote  is  taken  it  will  be  easy  to  secure 
team  work  from  a  minority  which  is  not  disgrun¬ 
tled  over  having  been  suppressed. 

The  great  secret,  however,  of  harmony  in  church 
administration  is  prayer.  It  is  in  the  spiritual  at¬ 
mosphere  that  men  see  eye  to  eye.  The  preacher 
must  be  a  spiritual  leader,  and  not  an  ecclesiastical 
oligarch.  In  moments  when  a  situation  is  tense 
and  the  tide  of  human  passion  is  rising,  if  he 
can  bring  in  the  Man  of  Galilee,  the  storm  will 
cease. 

Behind  these  church  officers  is  the  church  itself. 


118 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


and  the  preacher  must  make  the  right  contact  with 
his  flock.  He  will  do  this  by  cultivating  the  feel¬ 
ing  that  it  is  his  flock  and  that  he  is  the  under 
shepherd.  There  is  no  lovelier  picture  of  the  re¬ 
lations  which  should  exist  between  preacher  and 
people  than  this  which  Jesus  has  given  of  the  shep¬ 
herd  and  his  flock.  He  must  know  his  sheep  by 
name  and  lead  them  out,  feeding  them  by  day  and 
watching  by  night,  carrying  them  on  his  heart  and 
in  his  prayers,  and  sharing  with  them  in  fullest 
measure  the  common  lot  of  life. 

No  bargain-driving  here,  for  it  is  a  labour  of 
love.  What  his  people  will  not  do  for  him  through 
love  he  would  best  do  without.  He  may  often  be 
left  with  little  in  the  locker,  but  he  should  remem¬ 
ber  that  the  servant  is  not  greater  than  his  Lord. 
Christ  never  stood  on  His  rights.  The  preacher 
must  think  more  of  the  work  than  of  his  private  or 
professional  fortunes.  His  stipend  is  his  least  con¬ 
cern.  Others  are  to  look  after  that,  and  should 
they  fail,  he  must  remember  that  he  labours  not 
for  a  corruptible  crown. 

Much  is  said  about  an  underpaid  ministry.  The 
labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  but  the  preacher 
who  drops  down  into  a  hired  man  has  turned  a 
great  calling  into  a  poor  business.  He  deserves  to 
be  decently  supported,  but  if  he  is  not,  he  must 
make  the  best  of  it,  and  keep  in  mind  that  he  fol¬ 
lows  a  cross,  and  that  it  is  not  a  cross  of  gold. 

In  his  contacts  with  his  people  his  concern 


THE  PEEACHEE  IN  ACTION 


119 


should  be  not  what  he  can  get  from  them,  but 
what  he  can  do  for  them,  not  how  he  can  use  them 
for  himself,  but  how  he  can  develop  them  in  Chris¬ 
tian  character  and  service  until  they  will  lay  all 
that  they  have  and  are  at  his  Master’s  feet  to  be 
used  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel. 

The  church  of  course  is  not  the  preacher’s  field. 
It  is  his  force.  But  to  become  his  force  he  must 
have  made  it  to  an  extent  his  field.  He  must  study 
individual  lives,  and  match  talents  to  lines  of  serv¬ 
ice.  He  must  cultivate  interests  and  enlist  life  and 
possessions.  He  must  capture  the  imagination  of 
youth  with  the  heroic  aspects  of  Christian  en¬ 
deavour.  He  must  chain  the  attention  of  cold,  cal¬ 
culating  business  to  the  investments  offered  by  the 
Gospel.  And  then  in  the  hospital  and  sick  room,  in 
the  house  of  sorrow  and  in  the  hour  of  trouble  and 
misfortune  he  must  minister  to  human  hearts  fol¬ 
lowed  by  a  divine  hand  that  the  fruits  of  grace 
may  grow  and  ripen.  Doing  this,  he  will  be  a 
happy  minister,  and  sometimes  can  say  to  his  peo¬ 
ple  what  Paul  wrote  to  the  church  in  Corinth :  “  I 
rejoice  that  in  everything  I  am  of  good  courage 
concerning  you.” 

The  preacher’s  relations  to  other  denominations 
is  one  of  his  important  contacts.  He  should  be 
loyal  to  his  own,  but  not  to  the  extent  of  being 
intolerant.  There  never  was  a  time  when  Christ’s 
cause  was  served  by  sectarianism.  The  world  will 
not  be  saved  by  bigots  who 


120 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


“  Grunt  up  a  solemn  lengthened  groan, 

And  damn  a*  parties  but  their  own.” 

It  is  poor  salesmanship  to  try  to  promote  your 
own  business  by  running  down  that  of  your  com¬ 
petitor.  He  has  the  true  secret  of  success  in  re¬ 
ligion  as  well  as  in  business  who  rests  his  case  on 
the  service  rendered.  If  my  creed  is  better  than 
his  it  must  show  better  results.  Is  not  this  what 
Christ  meant  when  He  said:  “By  their  fruits  ye 
shall  know  them  ”  ? 

"  He  drew  a  circle  that  shut  me  out, — 
Heretic,  rebel,  a  thing  to  flout, 

But  love  and  I  had  the  wit  to  win, 

We  drew  a  circle  that  took  him  in.” 

Never  be  drawn  into  controversy.  Preach  a 
positive  message,  and  if  assailed,  follow  Ole  Bull’s 
plan.  He  was  once  offered  space  in  the  New  York 
Herald  to  answer  his  detractors,  but  declined,  say¬ 
ing:  “  I  think  it  is  best  that  they  write  against  me 
and  I  play  against  them.”  There  is  no  finer  de¬ 
fense  than  for  one  steadily  and  faithfully  to  do  his 
work. 

It  is  a  mistake,  however,  for  the  preacher  to 
regard  other  Christian  denominations  as  competi¬ 
tors.  They  are  merely  other  divisions  of  the  one 
great  army.  The  Captain  is  one,  the  cause  is  one, 
and  all  fight  a  common  foe.  It  is  a  strange  spirit 
that  declines  to  cooperate  with  other  churches  in 
Christian  work,  and  it  is  a  heart  that  is  both  small 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


121 


and  cold  that  lacks  interest  in  the  growth  and 
prosperity  of  all  believers. 

The  preacher  in  the  right  sense  of  the  word 
should  be  a  man  of  the  town.  He  is  a  community 
builder,  and  while  his  work  is  definitely  spiritual, 
he  has  contacts  with  groups  whose  lines  cross  and 
parallel  his,  and  whose  goal  is  to  secure  conditions 
of  human  welfare  which  come  as  by-products  of 
the  Gospel.  He  should  be  a  sympathetic  friend  to 
all  who  labour  to  build  a  better  town.  He  must 
join  with  these  and  make  his  contribution  to  the 
common  good.  He  does  not  cease  to  be  a  preacher 
because  he  lends  a  hand  to  social  reform  and  civic 
righteousness  and  industrial  fair  play.  He  has  not 
betrayed  his  pulpit  nor  surrendered  his  message  be¬ 
cause  he  has  taken  his  place  among  these  who  are 
the  foes  of  injustice  and  the  friends  of  the  weak. 
He  is  merely  showing  that  he  has  a  Gospel  which 
not  only  talks  but  works. 

Certainly  the  preacher  should  not  neglect  his 
church  for  the  community.  If  he  deserts  his  own 
people,  who  will  shepherd  them?  But  a  church 
that  has  to  be  coddled  is  in  a  bad  way.  Because 
the  church  pays  the  minister’s  salary,  it  does  not 
own  him.  He  belongs  to  his  Master,  and  when  he 
drops  down  into  nothing  but  the  centerpiece  of  a 
little  coterie  of  church  people,  he  ceases  to  be  the 
shepherd  of  the  flock  and  becomes  its  ewe  lamb. 

If  the  church  could  only  see  it,  the  best  thing 
for  its  own  interests  is  to  have  a  leader  who  de- 


122 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


dines  to  narrow  his  activities  to  ecclesiastical  mat¬ 
ters.  The  church  is  the  means,  not  the  end,  of  the 
Christian  religion.  It  has  a  social  mission.  The 
old  prophets  did  not  hesitate  to  push  out.  They 
would  be  called  political  reformers  if  they  were  on 
earth  to-day.  Christ  Himself  dealt  heavy  blows  to 
class  hatred  and  social  injustice  and  official  cor¬ 
ruption.  How  can  a  preacher  whose  soul  is  afire 
with  a  passion  for  righteousness  stay  dumb  when 
all  around  him  there  are  wrongs  which  cry  to  high 
heaven  for  redress?  Some  have  delivered  won¬ 
derful  sermons  to  the  saints.  They  have  fed  the 
souls  of  the  godly.  They  have  come  and  gone,  but 
the  world  never  knew  they  were  there.  They  have 
left  the  community  as  they  found  it.  It  is  safe  to 
say  that  the  devil  does  not  lose  any  sleep  over 
these  brethren. 

It  is  the  preacher  who  is  a  fighter  that  Satan 
fears,  a  man  who  uses  his  pulpit  to  shape  public 
opinion  against  organized  iniquity,  who  cries  aloud 
and  spares  not  in  the  war  on  commercialized  vice 
and  industrial  injustice,  and  who  is  to  be  counted 
on  for  a  man’s  full  part  in  every  scheme  to  make 
kinder  and  cleaner  and  safer,  as  well  as  more 
Christian,  the  community  in  which  he  dwells. 

The  preacher’s  zone  widens  beyond  even  this. 
John  Wesley  said  the  world  was  his  parish.  Every 
preacher  should  make  his  skyline  as  spacious. 
Christianity  is  a  world  religion.  Christ’s  dream 
was  world  conquest.  The  preacher  who  is  not 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


123 


baptized  with  missionary  fervour  is  a  stranger  to 
the  very  genius  of  the  Gospel. 

He  must  carry  the  world  in  his  heart  and  lead 
his  people  in  their  gifts  and  prayers  and  ministries 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  Church,  after  all,  is 
just  a  missionary  society.  It  exists  to  evangelize 
the  world.  When  it  has  fully  and  faithfully  done 
this,  the  consummation  will  be  at  hand. 

The  preacher  in  action,  therefore,  is  not  a  pro¬ 
vincial.  He  is  a  cosmopolitan,  a  man  of  the  world, 
the  statesman  of  Christian  internationalism.  He 
is  a  world  builder,  a  civilization  producer,  a 
bringer-in  of  the  kingdom.  He  may  have  a  modest 
charge  in  a  little  Main  Street  town,  but  he  is  en¬ 
gaged  in  an  enterprise  that  girdles  the  earth  and 
brushes  heaven. 

His  contacts  are  racial.  Like  the  old  prophets, 
he  stands  in  the  shadows  fighting  for  the  dawn, 
calling  for  the  day,  shouting  to  the  watchers  along 
the  world  line:  “  What  of  the  night?  ”  And  ever 
and  again  he  gets  back  from  the  far-flung  front: 
“  The  morning  cometh.”  Enough  for  him  if  he 
have  some  humble  share  in  the  reddening  sky 
which  says:  “The  day  approaches.”  Enough  if 
his  listening  heart  shall  hear  the  harbingers  of  the 
morning  singing  their  battle  song: 

“  O,  the  dawn  is  upon  us. 

The  pale  light  climbs  to  its  zenith. 

With  glamour  and  golden  dart; 

Up,  boot  and  saddle,  give  spurs  to  your  steeds. 


124 


THE  PREACHER  IN  ACTION 


There  are  cities  beleaguered  which  cry  for  men’s 
deeds 

With  the  pain  of  the  world  in  their  cavernous 
hearts, 

Ours  be  the  triumph,  humanity  calls, 

Life’s  not  a  dream  in  the  clover. 

On  to  the  walls,  on  to  the  walls, 

And  over !  ” 


VII 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD  IN  THE  GREAT 

CALLING 

fl  ^HERE  are  two  sides  to  everything — -the 
|  drab  and  the  gold,  the  cloud  and  the 
sheen,  the  dark  and  the  dawn,  the  battle 
and  the  victory,  the  cross  and  the  crown. 

The  gospel  ministry  is  no  exception.  The 
preacher  has  hours  that  are  gray  and  days  that 
are  golden.  Sometimes  the  way  drops  to  the  val¬ 
ley,  and  again  it  winds  to  the  heights.  There  are 
times  when  duty  takes  him  through  the  furnace 
fires,  and  then  there  comes  a  day  when  he  climbs 
to  the  summit  where  before  his  raptured  eyes  life 
is  transfigured. 

“  Is  has  been  a  hard  charge,”  said  a  tired  little 
woman  with  a  worn  look  in  her  face.  She  was  the 
minister’s  wife,  and  she  had  helped  him  carry  the 
burden  in  a  parish  that  forgot  to  be  kind.  To  her 
had  come  the  gray. 

“  If  he  would  be  fully  satisfied,  tell  him  to  choose 
the  ministry,”  said  an  enthusiastic  young  preacher 
who  was  in  the  radiant  morning  of  his  first  pastor¬ 
ate.  To  him  had  come  the  gold. 

“  Were  I  to  live  my  life  over  again,  I  would  not 
change  my  work.  It  has  never  been  easy.  Often 

125 


126 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


I  should  have  fallen  in  hopeless  discouragement 
and  defeat  had  not  an  unseen  hand  held  me  up, 
but  with  it  all  there  has  been  a  joy  no  words  can 
tell,  and  obscure  preacher  that  I  am,  I  would  not 
change  places  with  a  king.”  This  was  what  an 
aged  minister  said  as  he  tarried  in  the  twilight  at 
the  end  of  the  road  waiting  the  last  call.  To  him 
had  come  both  gray  and  gold. 

The  Drab 

Let  us  look  first  at  the  drab  in  the  great  calling. 

The  preacher’s  poverty  clamours  for  attention. 
There  are  only  two  decent  ways  for  him  to  escape. 
A  well-to-do  father  may  endow  him,  or  he  may 
marry  a  rich  wife.  Should  he  by  any  chance  pos¬ 
sess  the  money-making  gift  and  successfully  ex¬ 
ploit  it  as  he  exercises  his  ministry,  he  will  find 
his  influence  as  a  spiritual  leader  dwindling,  and 
more  than  likely  his  power  as  a  preacher  slowly 
dying  out. 

Poverty  has  its  hardships.  Paul  in  his  love  let¬ 
ter  to  the  Philippians  speaks  gratefully  of  the  fact 
that  while  he  was  preaching  to  the  church  in  Thes- 
salonica,  an  emotional  and  hysterical  church  that 
seems  to  have  been  readier  to  profess  than  to  per¬ 
form,  the  Philippians  “  sent  once  and  again  unto 
his  necessity.”  Happy  the  preacher  who  has  a  few 
friends  like  the  Philippians,  for  there  are  necessi¬ 
ties  that  must  be  provided  if  want  is  to  be  kept 
from  the  door  of  the  manse.  How  some  preachers 


THE  DKAB  AND  GOLD 


127 


manage  on  their  slender  stipends  passes  under¬ 
standing.  The  taunt  is  sometimes  flung  at  preach¬ 
ers  that  they  lack  business  sense;  if  the  ability  to 
make  a  dollar  go  a  long  way  is  a  sign  of  business 
sense,  preachers  are  the  leading  financiers  of  the 
world. 

“  Slow  rises  worth,  by  poverty  oppressed  ”  is  a 
proverb  that  may  not  be  true,  but  that  money  opens 
doors  of  opportunity,  that  it  is  needed  when  clothes 
are  to  be  bought  and  children  educated  and  ap¬ 
pearances  maintained  must  be  apparent  even  to  the 
stone  blind. 

It  was  a  Sunday  I  was  spending  in  the  field  of 
a  devout  and  consecrated  home  missionary.  His 
charge  was  wide  and  his  work  was  hard,  but  he 
was  getting  souls  for  his  hire.  It  was  about  all 
the  hire  he  was  getting.  I  went  into  his  study  and 
looked  around.  My  throat  filled  and  my  eyes  be¬ 
gan  to  swim.  His  library  consisted  of  a  teacher’s 
Bible,  a  concordance,  and  a  paper  pad.  Yes,  he 
needed  books,  but  books  cost  money.  How  was  he 
ever  to  have  a  library  on  his  starvation  salary? 
There  are  others  like  him.  This  is  the  pathos  of 
the  preacher’s  life.  He  must  have  ideas,  fresh  ones 
and  well  served,  if  he  is  to  hold  his  congregation, 
but  ideas  are  not  born  of  a  paper  pad.  As  steel 
sharpeneth  steel,  so  mind  sharpeneth  mind.  Books 
are  the  preacher’s  tools,  and  many  a  preacher  wears 
a  shiny  coat  that  he  may  buy  a  book. 

“The  cloke  that  I  left  at  Troas  with  Carpus 


128 


THE  DEAB  AND  GOLD 


when  thou  comest  bring  with  thee,  and  the  books, 
but  especially  the  parchments/’  Paul  was  so  poor 
that  he  could  not  afford  to  lose  the  cloak  he  forgot 
that  early  Monday  morning  he  hurried  from  Troas 
after  that  never-to-be-forgotten  service  in  an  up¬ 
per  room  lasting  past  midnight.  But  he  seems  to 
say:  '‘If  you  cannot  bring  all,  leave  the  cloke,  but 
fail  not  to  bring  my  books  and  manuscripts.” 

But  poverty  has  its  compensations.  There  must 
have  been  some  good  reason  why  the  Saviour  chose 
to  be  poor,  and  why  He  selected  for  His  disciples 
men  without  means,  and  why  through  the  long 
centuries  the  outstanding  preachers  of  the  Gospel 
have  lived  on  intimate  terms  with  poverty. 

After  all,  poverty  must  be  something  of  an  as¬ 
set  as  well  as  a  handicap  to  Christ’s  servant.  It 
gives  him  contacts  he  could  not  otherwise  acquire. 
It  opens  doors  and  makes  it  easier  for  him  to  enter 
hearts.  If  it  does  this,  though  it  come  dressed  in 
drab  it  is  welcome. 

Lack  of  appreciation  is  another  of  the  gray  as¬ 
pects  of  the  holy  calling.  The  fact  that  his  work 
is  a  labour  of  love  makes  the  sting  bite  deeper.  His 
is  always  a  full  day,  and  after  he  has  done  his  best 
he  is  conscious  that  he  has  left  much  undone. 
There  are  calls  he  should  have  made,  but  could  not 
reach.  An  ordinary  day  is  only  twenty-four  hours 
long.  There  are  matters  of  detail  in  his  parish 
that  deserved  attention,  but  amid  the  thronging 
duties  of  the  day  they  were  overlooked.  His  mes- 


THE  DEAB  AND  GOLD 


129 


sage  needed  more  careful  preparation,  but  his 
study  hour  was  broken  by  telephone  calls,  and 
smashed  beyond  repair  by  callers  who  had  time  to 
burn.  In  addition  to  all  else  there  are  important 
engagements  the  poor  man  is  sometimes  so  stupid 
as  actually  to  forget. 

I  forgot  a  wedding  once.  It  was  to  have  been 
at  four  P.  M.,  but  I  went  gaily  on  my  pastoral 
rounds,  and  was  soon  so  deeply  immersed  with 
the  troubles  of  two  families  whose  girls  worked  in 
the  mill  and  whose  parental  heads  wasted  their 
wages  in  drink  that  my  mind  was  a  blank  on  matri¬ 
mony.  The  Lord,  however,  watches  over  His 
servants,  and  He  guided  my  wandering  footsteps 
down  a  street  where  I  suddenly  ran  amuck  of  the 
bride’s  father  searching  madly  for  the  derelict  par¬ 
son.  The  wedding  feast  was  cold,  and  the  bride 
and  groom  did  not  look  as  ecstatic  as  some  I  have 
seen.  They  had  been  cheated  out  of  two  hours  of 
wedded  bliss.  But  I  comforted  myself  with  the 
thought  that  as  the  years  wore  on,  there  might 
come  a  day  when  they  would  forgive  me  for  the 
hundred  and  twenty  golden  minutes  I  had  sub¬ 
tracted  from  their  honeymoon. 

After  one  has  done  his  best,  it  hurts  to  be 
blamed.  Sometimes  the  preacher  is  tempted  to  be 
a  bit  bitter  when  this  lack  of  appreciation  comes 
from  people  from  whom  he  has  every  right  to 
expect  gratitude,  and  especially,  as  is  sometimes  the 
case,  when  to  render  the  service  he  had  to  drain 


130 


THE  DEAB  AND  GOLD 


his  lean  stipend.  A  preacher  was  once  called  home 
from  his  vacation  to  conduct  the  funeral  of  a 
member  of  his  church  who  was  many  times  a 
millionaire.  It  necessitated  a  long  and  expensive 
journey.  The  public  thought  he  received  a  fat 
honorarium,  but  they  were  mistaken.  He  was  not 
even  reimbursed  for  his  travelling  expenses.  The 
organist  sent  a  bill,  after  waiting  in  vain  and  giv¬ 
ing  sufficient  time  for  spontaneous  action.  The 
preacher  could  not  do  this,  so  he  merely  tightened 
his  belt. 

It  is  fine  to  be  able  to  see  the  humour  in  such 
experiences,  and  the  humour  is  there  if  one  have 
the  gift  to  sense  it.  Under  no  circumstances  must 
the  preacher  pity  himself.  Self-pity  has  been  well 
called  mental  phthisis.  It  is  a  disease  in  the  char¬ 
acter  akin  to  tuberculosis  in  the  body.  The 
preacher  is  doomed  who  thinks  of  himself  as  a 
martyr.  All  the  heroic  has  oozed  out  of  him,  and 
he  has  shrivelled  into  a  faint  simulation  of  a  herald 
of  the  cross. 

What  if  people  do  forget?  There  is  One  Who 
does  not,  and  if  at  the  close  of  the  day  He  says: 
“  Well  done,”  it  is  enough.  “  Not  with  eye  serv¬ 
ice  as  men-pleasers,  but  as  servants  of  Christ,  do¬ 
ing  the  will  of  God  from  the  heart.”  This  must 
be  the  preacher’s  resolve  when  leaden  skies  make 
gray  his  day  and  drab  hours  come  to  chill  his 
heart. 

A  sense  of  failure  is  worse  than  either  the  hard- 


THE  DEAB  AND  GOLD 


131 


ships  of  poverty  or  the  stings  of  ingratitude. 
Where  is  the  preacher  with  any  sort  of  a  decent 
standard  who  is  not  overwhelmed  again  and  again 
with  a  sense  of  failure  ?  He  makes  his  prayer  and 
builds  his  house  of  hope,  and  goes  forth  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  of  hosts  to  possess  the  land.  He 
returns  from  the  quest  empty-handed  to  find  his 
hopes  ashes  and  his  prayers  a  vain  cry  to  heavens 
of  brass.  He  fails  in  his  sermon.  He  has  put  his 
best  effort  into  the  preparation  of  his  message,  and 
enters  the  pulpit  from  his  knees,  but  somehow  the 
thing  will  not  preach.  He  descends  with  a  feeling 
akin  to  that  of  Charles  Kingsley,  who  after  preach¬ 
ing  in  Westminster  Abbey  said  with  his  slight 
stammer  to  a  friend:  “Whenever  I  walk  up  to 
the  pulpit  in  the  Abbey,  I  wish  myself  d-d-dead, 
and  whenever  I  walk  back,  I  wish  myself  more 
d-d-dead.” 

Worse  than  his  failures  with  sermons  are  his 
failures  with  the  people  he  tries  to  reach  and  with 
the  work  he  strives  to  do.  There  are  souls  over 
whom  he  agonizes,  but  somehow  he  seems  power¬ 
less  to  make  an  impression.  There  are  some  who 
give  bright  prospects  of  fruitful  service,  but  their 
ardour  cools,  their  zeal  lags,  the  world  gains,  and 
instead  of  becoming  a  joy  to  the  pastor’s  heart, 
they  are  a  source  of  anxiety  and  of  keenest  dis¬ 
appointment.  The  church  fails  to  prosper.  The 
work  seems  at  a  standstill.  There  is  no  enthusi¬ 
asm.  Appeals  fall  on  deaf  ears  and  unresponsive 


132 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


hearts.  Slowly  the  cold  steel  enters  the  preacher’s 
soul.  He  is  failing  in  his  ministry. 

Perhaps  even  harder  to  bear  is  the  conviction 
that  God  has  failed  him.  Instead  of  a  Pentecost 
he  has  had  a  Sahara.  The  revival  prayed  for  so 
earnestly  and  worked  for  so  hard  and  needed  so 
desperately  declines  to  arrive.  Where  is  the  min¬ 
ister  who  does  not  have  experiences  which  enable 
him  keenly  to  sympathize  with  Elijah  as  he  lay 
whipped  and  despairing  under  the  juniper  tree  in 
the  wilderness  and  requested  for  himself  that  he 
might  die?  He  thought  he  had  won  a  great  vic¬ 
tory.  He  had  been  answered  with  fire  from 
heaven.  Surely  God  was  with  him.  Then  sud¬ 
denly  high  noon  turns  black  as  midnight.  The 
threat  of  a  bad  woman  sends  him  in  headlong 
flight  to  the  desert.  He  has  failed.  “  O  God, 
let  me  die,  for  I  am  not  better  than  my  fathers.” 

It  helps  to  remember  that  results  are  God’s. 
Discouragement  is  often  merely  disenchanted 
egotism.  The  preacher  has  been  saying  his  prayers 
to  his  sermon  or  to  his  system  or  to  his  people 
rather  than  to  the  Lord,  and  God  gives  him  a 
rude  awakening  that  he  may  discover  the  real 
source  of  power.  This  is  the  lesson  that  runs 
through  the  entire  history  of  God’s  dealings  with 
the  chosen  people. 

There  is  also  such  a  thing  as  the  success  of 
failure.  Again  and  again  it  turns  out  that  what 
seem  to  be  one’s  most  crushing  defeats  are  in  real- 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


133 


ity  his  most  glorious  victories.  “  I  want  you  to 
preach  a  sermon  on  the  blessedness  of  unanswered 
prayer/’  a  good  woman  said  to  me  one  day.  She 
declared  that  some  of  her  richest  blessings  had 
come  to  her  because  of  the  prayers  which  God  had 
not  answered.  This  is  the  thought  that  must  com¬ 
fort  the  preacher  in  the  hour  of  his  Gethsemane. 
“  If  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me;  never¬ 
theless,  not  my  will,  but  thine,  be  done.,,  Then 
victory  strikes  the  hour,  for  defeat  is  impossible 
to  him  who  has  merged  his  will  into  the  will  of 
God. 

Such  are  some  of  the  times  when  the  drab  turns 
gold,  when  failure  wins  the  fight,  when  ceasing  to 
struggle  and  beginning  to  cling,  what  we  thought 
an  adversary  is  discovered  to  be  an  angel  of  the 
Lord  to  carry  us  safely  over  life’s  Jabboks  into 
our  real  inheritance.  And  so  it  comes  about  that 
the  preacher’s  light  afflictions  work  out  for  him  a 
“  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory.” 

Perhaps  the  drabbest  hour  in  the  gospel  ministry 
is  when  the  preacher  faces  the  dead  line,  and  begins 
to  realize  that  he  is  not  wanted,  that  the  gifts  and 
attainments  and  experiences  of  a  lifetime  have 
ceased  to  have  a  market  value  in  the  church,  that 
much  that  he  has  done  and  been  is  forgotten,  and 
that  about  all  there  is  left  to  him  is  to  resign  and 
retire,  and  wait  for  the  kind  hand  of  death  to  give 
him  release. 

It  is  a  strange  obsession  which  leads  the  Chris- 


134 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


tian  Church  to  discount  age.  In  the  other  learned 
professions,  the  law,  medicine,  journalism,  age  in¬ 
stead  of  being  a  liability  is  more  of  an  asset.  Who 
wants  a  young  doctor  ?  And  so  one  cultivates  lines 
of  care,  and  dresses  with  a  seriousness  beyond  his 
years  that  he  may  overcome  the  handicap  of  youth. 
Not  until  he  passes  middle  life  does  the  lawyer  be¬ 
gin  to  reap  the  harvest  of  what  he  has  so  long  and 
so  laboriously  sown.  Well-nigh  everywhere  else 
years  add  value  to  one’s  earning  capacity.  In  the 
gospel  ministry  the  dead  line  is  a  terror. 

One  would  think  that  in  religious  work  more 
than  anywhere  else  a  ripened  experience  would 
command  a  premium.  “  A  hoary  head  is  a  crown 
of  glory  if  it  be  found  in  the  way  of  righteousness.” 
There  is  nothing  in  either  the  Old  or  the  New 
Testament  in  favour  of  chloroforming  the  old  min- 
ister.  One  wonders  what  was  behind  the  calf  wor¬ 
ship  the  children  of  Israel  brought  out  of  Egypt, 
and  how  long  it  can  survive  as  an  hereditary  in¬ 
fluence. 

The  practice  becomes  all  the  more  wicked  when 
one  considers  the  pitiful  provision  made  in  the 
shape  of  ministerial  relief  and  pension  funds  for 
the  old  preacher  shelved  before  his  preaching  days 
are  over.  A  few  churches  are  wakening  to  the 
situation  and  seeking  to  give  some  sort  of  decent 
treatment  to  the  pastor  whose  always  meagre  salary 
made  it  impossible  for  him  to  save,  and  who  with¬ 
out  a  dowry  crosses  the  dead  line  and  enters  his 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


135 


Sahara.  With  most  churches,  however,  it  is  still 
a  dole  of  charity,  and  even  that  not  always  given 
with  a  good  grace. 

There  is  nothing  that  so  tests  the  measures  of 
the  man  as  this.  One  must  have  an  undying  at¬ 
tachment  to  Christ  to  be  subjected  to  such  treat¬ 
ment  and  stay  sweet.  That  many  of  them,  most  of 
them,  do  is  a  high  tribute  to  the  heroic  stuff  of 
which  most  preachers  are  made.  They  have 
learned  the  lesson  of  putting  self  aside,  and  they 
are  tasting  some  of  the  joy  Paul  had  when  he  said: 
y :  “  I  am  crucified  with  Christ.”  Here  in  the  twi¬ 
light  of  the  long  day  the  aged  minister  shoulders 
the  heaviest  cross  he  has  had  to  bear.  But  he  is 
not  alone,  and  the  promise  still  holds  :  “  As  thy 
day,  so  shall  thy  strength  be.”  And  so  there  is 
light  at  evening. 

These  are  some  of  the  drab  hours  in  the  great 
calling.  They  only  enhance  the  brightness  of  the 
gold,  for  God  ever  builds  a  tear  and  a  smile  close 
together.  For  these  drab  hours  the  preacher  needs 
to  cultivate  the  cheerful  mood  of  old  Uncle  Henry. 
He  had  been  a  slave  in  the  family  of  Dr.  Moses 
Hoge,  who  for  over  half  a  century  was  pastor  of 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  Richmond, 
Virginia.  After  the  war  was  over  and  the  negroes 
were  given  their  freedom,  Uncle  Henry  moved  into 
Prince  Edward  County  and  lived  in  a  little  cabin 
on  the  banks  of  the  Briery  River  not  far  from 
Hampden  Sidney.  Once  a  year  with  funds  fur- 


136 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


nished  by  his  former  master  he  would  make  a 
pilgrimage  to  Richmond.  There  was  always  a 
room  ready  for  him  in  the  manse,  and  there  the 
former  slave  was  made  a  guest.  After  Dr.  Hoge’s 
death,  Miss  Bessie,  his  daughter,  continued  the 
custom  of  Uncle  Henry’s  annual  visit. 

One  day  the  old  negro  hobbled  in,  bent  and 
twisted  with  rheumatism,  his  clothing  the  worse 
for  wear,  and  greeted  Miss  Bessie  with  the  remark : 
“  Dis  is  ma  las’  visit,  Miss  Bessie.  De  Lawd  has 
done  sot  His  heart  on  me,  an’  He’s  gwine  to  tak 
me  home.”  “  You  must  not  be  so  low-spirited,” 
Miss  Bessie  replied.  “  What  makes  you  think 
you’re  going  to  die  ?  ” 

“  Day  wuz  a  flood  in  Ole  Briery  las’  winter,  and 
wash  my  cabin  away.  Ah  moved  into  Worsham, 
and  de  roof  caved  in.  Den  Ah  got  a  place  in 
Farmville,  but  Ah  couldn’t  pay  de  rent,  and  dey 
put  me  out.” 

“  I  don’t  see  that  all  this  proves  that  you  are 
going  to  die.” 

“  Well,  doan  de  good  book  say  dat  ‘  Whom  de 
Lawd  loves  He  chases  ’?  From  de  way  He’s  been 
chasin’  me  aroun’  heah  lately,  Ah  know  He’s  done 
sot  His  heart  on  me,  an’  He’s  gwine  to  tak  His 
ole  sarvant  home.” 

Henry  was  not  so  far  wrong,  for  the  drab  in 
the  life  of  God’s  servant  is  but  a  part  of  the  tracery 
of  love.  “  The  trial  of  your  faith  is  more  precious 
than  gold  that  perisheth.”  Therefore,  who  knows 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


137 


but  some  day,  somewhere,  the  drab  may  outshine 
the  gold,  and  the  preacher  look  back  on  the  gray 
days  in  his  life-work  as  times  when  heaven 
brushed  earth  and  the  “  far-stretched  land  which 
is  so  very  near  ”  was  nearest? 

The  Gold 

The  gold  in  the  great  calling  is  pure  gold.  The 
preacher’s  mother  country  is  like  Havilah,  and 
p ,  “  the  gold  of  that  land  is  good.”  The  material 
compensations  of  the  gospel  ministry  may  be 
meagre,  but  the  preacher  is  rich  in  the  stipend  that 
feeds  the  soul  and  fills  the  heart  with  contentment 
and  peace.  He  has  the  hidden  manna.  His  are 
the  riches  which  abide.  There  is  no  calling  open 
to  men  which  so  fertilizes  the  soul  with  enduring 
rewards  as  this. 

First  to  be  mentioned  among  the  things  which 
gloriously  react  on  one’s  soul  as  he  follows  the 
great  calling  is  the  fun  of  fighting  the  devil.  Every 
red-blooded  man  loves  a  fight.  There  is  some¬ 
thing  wrong  with  the  soul  that  supinely  surrenders. 
“  I  was  ever  a  fighter,  so  one  fight  more.”  The 
greatest  preacher  in  apostolic  days,  as  he  drew 
near  the  end  of  his  ministry,  said:  “  I  have  fought 
a  good  fight.”  Christianity  is  a  militant  religion. 
Its  great  hymns  are  war  songs,  and  its  promises 
are  “  To  him  that  overcometh.” 

The  man  who  represents  God  in  this  wicked 
world  must  have  in  him  something  of  the  spirit  of 


138 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


that  Canadian  lad  who  after  his  daily  fistic  en¬ 
counter  with  an  older  brother,  from  which  he  usu¬ 
ally  emerged  victor,  said  as  he  was  about  to  receive 
at  the  hands  of  his  mother  the  customary  chastise¬ 
ment:  “  Mother,  you  may  whip  me  as  often  as  you 
please,  but  you  can  never  whip  the  fight  out  of  me.” 
Of  course  the  preacher  must  not  degenerate  into 
a  disputer  and  deserve  to  be  classed  with  the 
Scotchman’s  dog  whose  master,  when  asked  what 
was  the  matter  with  his  dog,  replied:  “  Oh,  life  is 
full  of  sariousness  to  him.  He  can  just  never  get 
enough  of  fichtin,.,, 

The  trouble  with  most  of  the  fighting  in  the 
world  is  that  it  has  nothing  but  bad  blood  behind 
it.  It  is  a  riot  of  the  rage  of  unrestrained  human 
passion.  It  is  motived  by  selfishness  or  hate  or 
lust  for  gain  or  power.  The  fun  in  fighting  the 
devil  is  to  see  rascality  thwarted,  hypocrisy  un¬ 
masked,  and  hate  vanquished.  It  is  a  clean  fight 
for  a  clean  world.  It  is  a  campaign  against  the 
beast,  against  the  powers  of  darkness,  against  the 
foes  of  all  that  God  and  man  hold  dear. 

It  is  great  to  go  out  against  a  brothel  where 
hell  is  hatched,  against  a  dive  where  crime  burrows 
and  hides,  against  commercialized  vice  whose  vic¬ 
tims  are  boys  and  girls,  against  the  graft  and 
bribery  of  corrupt  officials  who  prey  on  the  weak 
and  betray  a  town.  It  is  great  to  fight  sin  around 
you;  as  one  does,  he  finds  sin  dying  out  within 
him.  This  is  the  only  holy  war,  and  that  preacher 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


139 


is  strangely  timid  who  is  not  eager  to  be  in  the 
thick  of  the  fray.  Here  in  this  moral  warfare  for 
a  cleaner  world  is  no  place  for  white-livered  cow¬ 
ards  who  turn  pale  on  the  red  line  of  battle.  Some¬ 
thing  of  the  soul  of  Elijah  on  Mount  Carmel  is 
needed,  something  of  the  spirit  of  Caleb  as  he 
hunted  for  giants  on  the  heights  of  Hebron. 

The  preacher  who  fights  the  devil  will  not  escape 
wounds.  He  will  be  splashed  with  the  mud  of  a 
godless  world.  There  will  be  those  to  say  that  he 
would  better  stay  inside  his  holy  of  holies  and 
avoid  all  contacts  with  the  sordid  and  seamy  side 
of  life.  At  such  times  he  can  comfort  himself 
with  the  words  of  his  Master:  “  Woe  unto  you 
when  all  men  shall  speak  well  of  you,  for  so  did 
their  fathers  to  the  false  prophets/’ 

While  there  are  wounds,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
about  the  issue  of  the  battle  against  the  powers  of 
darkness.  It  is  always  victory  for  the  powers  of 
light.  “  Resist  the  devil  and  he  will  flee  from 
you.”  It  is  strange  that  the  Church  should  ever 
be  timid  about  fighting  the  devil.  Sin  has  not  a 
chance  in  the  field  against  God.  The  moment  light 
is  turned  on  iniquity,  it  beats  a  retreat.  Indeed, 
the  campaign  of  a  militant  church  is  little  more 
than  a  march  of  triumph.  The  Great  Captain  Who 
marches  from  Edom  “  glorious  in  his  apparel, 
travelling  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength,”  has 
fought  and  won,  and  those  who  follow  in  His 
train  are  already  conquerors. 


140 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


Finer  than  the  thrill  of  war  and  the  elation  of 
victory  is  the  joy  of  rescue.  There  is  no  satisfac¬ 
tion  sweeter  than  his  who  has  been  privileged  to 
lead  a  soul  into  saving  fellowship  with  Christ. 
This  is  preeminently  the  preacher’s  work.  He  is 
in  the  business  of  salvation.  He  is  to  be  forever 
seeking  to  save  the  lost.  He  will  be  busy  about 
many  things,  but  they  are  merely  the  by-products 
of  the  great  calling.  The  goal  of  all  is  a  redeemed 
soul,  and  the  preacher  who  has  no  souls  for  his 
hire  has  failed. 

He  may  preach  great  sermons  to  big  crowds 
who  hang  on  his  words  and  admire  his  gifts.  He 
may  organize  his  parish  into  a  big  business  until  a 
numerous  staff  of  hired  helpers  are  driven  day  and 
night  to  superintend  the  multitudinous  activities  of 
a  complex  ecclesiastical  machine.  He  may  be  up 
to  his  neck  in  engagements  that  call  him  hither  and 
yon  to  lend  his  influence  for  human  betterment. 
He  may  achieve  popularity  and  fame,  and  find  his 
name  in  the  headlines  and  on  the  committee  lists 
of  much  that  goes  on  under  the  sun.  But  if  his 
ministry  is  sterile  of  souls,  what  doth  it  profit? 
“  He  that  winneth  souls  is  wise.” 

Here  is  the  pure  gold  of  the  great  calling.  “  He 
which  converteth  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his 
way  shall  save  a  soul  from  death,  and  shall  hide  a 
multitude  of  sins.”  This  is  the  test  of  the  sermon, 
— not  what  the  newspapers  said  about  it  the  next 
morning,  but  did  it  get  its  man?  Did  any  sin-sick 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


141 


soul  come  saying:  “  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?  ” 
There  is  no  joy  like  the  thrill  which  comes  with 
the  consciousness  of  having  been  used  to  change 
the  destiny  of  a  human  life  and  make  one  who  was 
lost  safe,  and  one  who  was  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins  partaker  of  the  divine  nature. 

Here  is  the  compensation  for  all  the  gray  days 
that  crowd  the  calendar.  “  Do  you  never  feel 
lonely?”  someone  asked  of  the  lighthouse  keeper 
on  a  wild  and  far-out  point  at  sea.  “  No,  not 
since  I  saved  my  man.”  The  cry  of  the  man  he 
had  saved  sang  to  him  in  his  lonely  hours.  The 
face  of  the  man  he  had  saved  smiled  on  him  when 
the  day  was  gray.  The  spirit  of  the  man  he  had 
saved  communed  with  him  in  the  long  and  weary 
watches  when  the  storm  was  on  the  sea.  And  so 
he  was  not  lonely.  Thus  it  is  with  the  preacher, 
for  after  all,  his  pulpit  is  a  lighthouse,  and  his 
work  is  to  give  light  and  to  save  life.  To  drag 
one  soul  out  of  the  muck  of  the  murky  sea,  to 
watch  one  soul  turn  its  face  to  the  morning  and 
fare  on  with  a  song,  is  to  lose  loneliness  forever, 
is  to  find  the  angels  of  God  not  far  away. 

There  is  gold,  too,  in  the  ministry  of  building 
up  a  broken-down  life,  for  the  preacher’s  work 
does  not  end  with  rescue.  Salvation  is  vastly  more 
than  keeping  out  of  hell.  The  marvellous  proc¬ 
esses  of  Christian  experience  are  to  be  wrought  in. 
Character  is  to  be  built.  Knowledge  is  to  be  in¬ 
creased.  Devotion  and  consecration  are  to  be  de- 


142 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


veloped.  Service  is  to  be  promoted.  What  is 
more  fascinating  than  to  watch  the  transformation 
of  a  human  life  into  godiikeness?  It  is  interest¬ 
ing  to  see  a  tree  grow,  a  city  grow,  a  nation  grow, 
but  to  watch  a  soul  grow  is  to  share  with  God  the 
finest  sight  either  time  or  eternity  can  offer. 

“We  all  with  open  face  beholding  as  in  a  glass 
the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  changed  into  the  same 
image  from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the  spirit  of 
the  Lord.”  To  stand  on  the  deck  on  a  moonlight 
night  and  watch  “  the  moonbeams  transfigure  the 
dark  ocean  into  a  silvery  radiance  like  their  own  ” 
is  to  have  nature  cast  its  spell  on  you.  But  it  is  to 
feel  the  moods  of  heaven  to  watch  Him  Who  is 
“  the  Light  of  the  world  ”  transfigure  with  His 
radiant  glory  human  lives  until  dark  sin  stains  dis¬ 
appear,  until  the  lustrous  beauty  of  godhood  shines 
in  the  open  face  and  human  hearts  cry:  “  Now  are 
we  the  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth  not  yet  appear 
what  we  shall  be,  but  we  know  that  when  he  shall 
appear,  we  shall  be  like  him,  for  we  shall  see  him 
as  he  is.” 

The  preacher  ministers  to  the  highest  in  man, — 
not  to  what  the  man  has,  but  to  what  he  is,  not  to 
what  he  is  for  an  hour  or  a  century  but  to  what 
he  is  forever, — not  to  what  he  is  or  appears  to  be, 
but  to  what  he  may  become  in  the  boundless  sweep 
of  God’s  unfolding  plan  for  a  human  life. 

It  is  something  to  minister  to  the  body,  to  set  a 
broken  limb,  to  rebuild  a  deformed  hip,  to  cure  a 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


143 


tubercular  bone,  to  wipe  a  hare  lip  from  a  child’s 
face,  to  lay  a  baby  in  a  mother’s  arms,  to  fight  off 
the  foes  that  would  rob  the  baby  of  its  mother  or 
the  mother  of  her  child,  but  it  is  greater  to  minister 
to  the  soul,  for  man  merely  has  a  body,  but  is  a 
soul,  and  “  it  takes  a  soul  to  lift  a  body.”  It  takes 
“  a  high-born  soul  to  move  it  even  to  a  cleaner  sty.” 

It  is  something  to  minister  to  a  man’s  surround¬ 
ings,  to  clean  up  a  slum,  to  promote  decent  housing 
conditions,  to  fight  for  a  living  wage  for  the  under¬ 
paid,  to  espouse  the  cause  of  weakness  against 
greed  and  oppression,  to  contend  against  disease 
and  poverty  and  the  monotony  of  life,  but  it  is 
greater  to  have  a  hand  in  building  within  the  soul 
a  fighting  force  to  overcome.  Man  is  essentially  a 
spirit,  and  the  preacher  is  the  physician  of  the 
spiritual.  His  satisfaction  is  not  to  see  a  garden 
grow  where  a  desert  held  sway,  but  to  grow  a  race 
of  vanquishers  of  the  desert,  in  whose  blood  runs 
the  life  of  God,  and  whose  work  widens  out  beyond 
the  garden  even  to  the  new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth. 

It  is  a  day  of  gold  to  the  preacher  when  he  dis¬ 
covers  that  God  is  working  with  him,  that  he  is 
not  alone,  that  he  is  not  one  feeble  man  fighting  a 
hostile  world,  but  one  man  plus  Almighty  God. 
How  his  own  soul  takes  fire  and  his  weak  will 
stiffens  and  steadies  and  his  courage  climbs  with 
that  discovery.  There  are  such  days,  thank  God, 
for  His  servants!  Then  the  long  road  shortens 


144 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


and  the  winding  way  clears  and  the  heights  seem 
nearer  and  the  angels  sing  to  men  who  have  waited 
and  hoped  and  fought  off  despair.  These  days 
come  when  a  prayer  is  answered  in  so  convincing 
a  way  as  to  become  a  certificate  of  the  reality  of 
the  supernatural.  Once  more  a  bramble  bush  be¬ 
comes  God’s  shekinah,  and  the  preacher  walks 
softly,  for  he  knows  that  he  is  on  holy  ground. 

To  help  a  soul  fight  off  fear  when  the  time 
comes  to  cross  the  great  divide,  to  sit  there  by  the 
bedside  of  a  dying  man  and  tell  him  of  Jesus  and 
repeat  the  story  of  Calvary  and  recite  the  promises 
of  God  and  proclaim  the  power  of  the  blood  to 
blot  out  sin,  to  hold  open  the  door  of  grace  and 
say:  “  Whosoever  will  may  come,”  until  fear  fades 
from  the  face  and  there  is  in  the  heart  “  the  peace 
of  God  that  passeth  all  understanding  ”  and  on  the 
soul,  instead  of  the  shadow  of  death,  “  the  light 
that  never  was  on  land  or  sea,”  is  to  witness  face  to 
face  the  mightiest  of  all  miracles,  is  to  know  be¬ 
yond  all  doubt  “  that  God  is,  and  that  he  is  the  re¬ 
warder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  him.” 

To  the  preacher  is  given  to  touch  life  in  its  holi¬ 
est  moments  and  deepest  moods.  When  a  man  and 
woman  would  rebuild  their  Eden  and  stand  to 
plight  to  each  other  their  troth  and  take  the  vows 
which  make  them  husband  and  wife,  it  is  the  min¬ 
ister  who  tells  them  that  “  for  this  cause  a  man 
shall  leave  his  father  and  his  mother,  and  shall 
cleave  unto  his  wife,  and  they  twain  shall  be  one 


THE  DEAB  AND  GOLD 


145 


flesh,”  and  it  is  his  lips  that  pronounce  the  words 
which  bind  “  till  death  shall  part.” 

When  God  gives  a  child  and  parental  love  stands 
to  plight  troth  to  God  and  enter  into  that  holy 
covenant  whose  object  is  to  safeguard  the  little 
life  from  the  evil  in  the  world,  it  is  the  minister 
who  hears  the  vow  and  applies  the  sacred  waters 
of  baptism. 

And  when  the  shadow  falls  on  the  window  and 
the  crape  flutters  at  the  door  and  the  call  comes  to 
sail  away  on  the  river  that  flows  ever  north  and 
whose  tides  do  not  return,  it  is  the  minister  again 
who  comes  to  say  that  the  dark  river  runs  to  a 
morning  land,  and  that  on  its  far  banks  Eden  re¬ 
builds  to  abide  forever. 

What  a  holy  privilege  to  be  permitted  to  enter 
in  with  God  to  these  holiest  and  most  intimate 
hours  of  life!  He  is  dull  indeed  whose  soul  is  not 
stirred  by  such  experiences  and  who  does  not  seek 
from  heaven  the  strength  and  grace  for  such  min¬ 
istry. 

The  preacher  is  to  represent  Him  Who  said  to 
the  stricken  of  earth:  “  I  will  not  leave  you  com¬ 
fortless.  I  will  come  to  you.”  He  is  to  be  a  min¬ 
ister  of  consolation.  Here  is  perhaps  his  sublimest 
opportunity.  The  door  is  open  in  the  day  of  trou¬ 
ble.  His  people  expect  him  then.  They  are  wait¬ 
ing  for  the  message  which  only  he  can  bring. 
Their  hearts  are  tender,  and  they  are  conscious  of 
their  need.  Alas,  if  he  come  not !  He  has  lost  his 


146 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


chance.  ITe  might  have  led  them  into  a  new  and 
closer  walk  with  God.  A  soul  was  there,  melted 
and  broken  and  ready  to  surrender.  But  while  the 
preacher  was  busy  with  his  church  societies  and 
the  machinery  of  his  parish,  the  world  walked  back 
into  the  heart  that  was  waiting  and  longing  for 
God,  and  the  preacher’s  chance  went  by  perhaps 
forever. 

He  has  strangely  mixed  and  mistaken  values 
who  in  the  work  of  the  gospel  ministry  walks  to¬ 
ward  lives  in  trouble  with  reluctant  feet.  People 
in  trouble  drew  Christ  like  a  magnet.  The  cry  of 
human  need  always  found  Him  ready.  See  Him 
as  He  mothers  a  broken  heart  and  says:  “  I  will 
not  leave  you  orphaned.”  To  one  who  has  armed 
himself  with  the  mind  of  Christ,  it  is  not  irksome 
to  be  permitted  to  be  a  minister  of  consolation  to 
hearts  bereft  and  lonely.  What  greater  privilege 
than  to  share  the  sacrament  of  sorrow  with  souls 
who  kneel  where  the  golden  light  of  heaven  streams 
through  the  gate  of  pearl  open  for  a  fleeting  mo¬ 
ment  to  admit  the  pilgrim  whose  long  journey  is 
over  and  who  is  going  in  to  be  forever  with  the 
Lord? 

There  is  pure  gold,  too,  in  the  preacher’s  op¬ 
portunity  to  help  build  a  better  world.  He  is  the 
harbinger  of  the  new  day  for  mankind.  He  has 
the  message  that  can  cure  sin  and  banish  hate  and 
end  strife  and  promote  brotherhood  and  create 
civilization. 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


147 


Giovanni  Papini,  an  Italian  writer,  has  recently 
written  a  book  entitled  “  The  Story  of  Christ.” 
Papini  had  been  a  violent  antagonist  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  but  the  war  cured  him.  He  was  stunned 
by  its  horrors,  and  then  shocked  wide  awake  by 
the  perils  which  threaten  a  world  that  has  no 
breakwater  against  human  hate.  He  has  become 
as  intense  in  his  espousal  and  advocacy  as  he 
formerly  was  in  his  rejection  of  the  Gospel,  for  he 
says:  “  The  only  way  to  change  the  world  is  to 
change  its  spirit,  and  the  only  thing  that  can  change 
its  spirit  is  religion.”  He  might  have  added  that 
the  only  religion  that  can  change  the  spirit  of  the 
world  from  hate  to  love  is  the  religion  of  the  gentle 
Christ. 

What  a  privilege  to  be  the  herald  of  the  message 
that  is  to  change  the  world,  that  is  to  make  it 
friendly,  that  is  to  end  war  forever!  This  is  the 
gold  in  the  great  calling;  the  Gospel's  program  is 
international  friendship,  and  its  goal  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth.  The  preacher  is  the 
statesman  of  the  new  age.  He  is  a  world  builder, 
a  civilization  producer.  He  toils  at  a  task  angels 
might  envy.  He  is  in  partnership  with  God. 

The  friendships  of  the  ministry  are  among  its 
dearest  treasures.  Perhaps  nowhere  is  friendship 
more  unselfish  than  here.  The  ties  which  bind 
together  a  pastor  and  the  people  of  his  charge  are 
free  of  mercenary  stain  or  taint.  They  are  more 
precious  than  those  material  values  which  would 


148 


THE  DEAB  AND  GOLD 


free  the  preacher  of  worldly  care.  This  stipend  of 
the  heart,  the  love  of  his  people,  next  to  the  ap¬ 
proval  of  his  God,  is  his  best  compensation  as  he 
goes  on  in  his  work. 

The  gospel  ministry  is  rich  in  friendships.  Ever 
and  again  the  old  story  of  David  and  Jonathan  re¬ 
peats  itself.  “  Because  Jonathan  loved  David,  for 
he  loved  him  as  he  loved  his  own  soul.”  Over  and 
over  the  story  of  Paul  and  Timothy  finds  a  modern 
counterpart,  and  age  reaches  out  its  arms  to  youth 
and  yearningly  calls :  “  Do  thy  diligence  to  come 
shortly  unto  me.” 

He  who  thinks  the  gospel  ministry  a  gloomy 
business  does  not  know.  One  need  only  sit  for  a 
short  half-hour  in  that  genial  and  often  gay  and 
always  friendly  fellowship  to  discover  that  the 
lightest-hearted  men  in  the  world  are  these  preach¬ 
ers  who  share  with  men  their  burdens,  but  who 
share  with  Christ  His  yoke. 

It  was  once  my  privilege  on  a  voyage  to  Europe 
to  have  as  table  mates  a  group  of  preachers.  Three 
times  daily  for  a  fortnight  we  sat  together  at  the 
table  and  discussed  themes  that  ranged  from  gay 
to  gray  through  time  and  out  into  the  beyond. 
The  group  was  made  up  of  such  preachers  as 
Bishop  Hamilton,  Peter  Ainslie,  Howard  Bridg¬ 
man,  Nehemiah  Boynton,  and  Graham  Taylor. 
Who  that  shared  those  rare  days  can  ever  forget? 
Such  repartee,  such  wit  and  humour,  such  engag¬ 
ing  anecdotes,  such  side-splitting  stories,  such  good- 


THE  DRAB  ARD  GOLD 


149 


natured  controversy,  such  fellowship!  And  in  it 
all  there  was  never  a  story  that  left  a  stain,  never 
a  sally  that  left  a  sting.  This  is  a  part  of  the 
golden  hire  of  the  gospel  ministry  and  “  the  gold 
of  that  land  is  good.” 

Thus  the  great  calling  runs  its  course  until  the 
sun  dips  low  in  the  west.  The  old  preacher  is  not 
as  active  as  he  was.  There  is  less  of  fire  in  his 
message.  Age  has  mellowed  the  flame,  but  it  has 
also  intensified  the  glow  of  a  good  life.  What 
finer  asset  does  the  town  possess  than  the  influence 
of  an  old  minister  who  for  long  years  has  lived  a 
spotless  life  and  spent  his  powers  in  the  service  of 
God  and  humanity?  Just  to  meet  him  is  to  catch 
sight  of  a  vista  that  stretches  past  time.  Just  to 
have  him  say:  “  Good-morning!  ”  or  lay  his  kind 
hand  on  your  shoulder  is  to  feel  that  God  is  not 
far  off. 

His  life  has  proved  his  message.  All  the  devils 
in  hell  cannot  answer  the  life  he  has  lived.  Scof¬ 
fers  are  silent  when  they  think  of  him.  Skeptics 
find  how  cheap  and  shabby  doubts  are  when 
matched  against  the  faith  of  a  saint  who  for  the 
best  part  of  a  century  has  fairly  incarnated  his 
creed. 

I  am  thinking  of  one  of  these  old  preachers  as 
I  come  to  the  close  of  my  story  of  the  drab  and 
gold  in  the  great  calling.  For  more  than  fifty  years 
he  was  the  master  of  a  valley  manse  “  beyond  the 
blue  mountains  in  the  lovely  valley  of  the  Shen- 


150 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


andoah.”  1  Let  one  who  dipped  his  brush  in  his 
heart  paint  the  picture. 

“  As  a  pastor  he  was  profoundly  beloved.  His 
very  presence  was  a  benediction.  Old  and  young 
rejoiced  at  his  coming,  and  found  cheer  and  com¬ 
fort  in  the  kindly  ministry  of  one  who  like  his 
Master  4  went  about  doing  good/ 

“  And  he  was  every  inch  a  man ;  gentle  yet  firm, 
kindly  yet  courageous,  there  was  about  him  that 
quality  of  manhood  which  true  men  everywhere 
recognize  without  effort  and  reverence  without 
stint,  with  a  face  so  handsome  that  it  would  at¬ 
tract  attention  in  a  crowd,  a  graceful  carriage,  a 
rare  tact,  a  manner  so  gracious  and  frank  and 
kindly  that  all  were  irresistibly  drawn  to  him,  he 
was  for  more  than  threescore  years  the  leading 
citizen  of  his  city  and  section.  Men  and  women 
of  that  older  day  looked  upon  him  as  their  ideal 
man.  Their  children  and  their  children’s  children 
came  under  his  influence,  felt  the  charm  of  his 
personality,  and  in  after  years  blessed  God  for  the 
lasting  impress  of  his  character  in  their  heart  and 
life.  Men  of  the  world,  often  critical  and  cen¬ 
sorious  of  others,  were  hushed  to  silence  in  his 
presence,  and  as  they  looked  upon  him,  took  knowl¬ 
edge  of  him  that  he  had  been  with  Jesus.” 

There  are  others  like  this  saintly  master  of  the 

1  Rev.  James  R.  Graham,  D.  D.,  for  more  than  sixty  years 
the  pastor  of  Kent  Street  Presbyterian  Church,  Winchester, 
Va.  He  gave  three  sons  to  the  ministry. 


THE  DRAB  AND  GOLD 


151 


valley  manse.  Rich  indeed  is  the  community  that 
can  count  among  its  assets  such  a  life.  Privileged 
indeed  is  he  who  is  permitted  to  wield  such  an 
influence. 

And  so  for  the  preacher  “  at  evening  time  it 
shall  be  light.”  As  the  day  wears  to  its  close,  how¬ 
ever  drab  the  noon  or  gray  the  dawn,  the  sunset  is 
golden,  and  the  road  west  winds  through  the 
gloaming  toward  the  morning  land.  “  There  is  no 
night  there.”  For  the  light  that  brings  the  dawn 
“  shines  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day.” 


VIII 


THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER 

THERE  have  been  many  great  preachers. 

Is  it  possible  to  name  the  greatest? 
There  are  two  tests  by  which  a  preacher’s 
greatness  is  to  be  measured.  The  first  is  his  value 
to  God  and  the  second  his  value  to  men.  All  other 
tests,  such  as  scholarship,  eloquence,  personal  in¬ 
fluence,  results  achieved,  are  incidental.  A  great 
preacher  must  make  his  life  count  for  God  and  for 
mankind.  The  extent  to  which  he  does  decides 
the  measure  of  his  enduring  greatness.  Let  us  try 
to  measure  Paul  by  these  tests. 

Sometimes  a  phrase  is  enough  to  reveal  a  life. 
It  lifts  the  curtain  and  lets  us  look  full  on  the  face 
and  character  and  career  of  the  speaker.  There 
are  two  brief  phrases  in  which  Paul  reveals  him¬ 
self.  In  one  he  discloses  his  relation  to  God  and 
in  the  other  to  man.  In  one  he  says:  “  For  his 
sake  I  have  lost  everything/’ 1  and  in  the  other : 
“  I  am  debtor.”  These  are  two  portraits  of  the 
same  face.  When  we  have  looked  at  them  for  a 
while,  we  shall  find  them  blending  into  a  single 
likeness  of  the  world’s  greatest  preacher. 

1  Moffatt’s  Translation. 

152 


THE  WOELD’S  GEEATEST  PEEACHEE  153 

Making  Life  Count  for  God 

In  his  letter  to  the  Philippians,  Paul  writes: 
“  For  his  sake  I  have  lost  everything.”  This  is 
not  the  sigh  of  a  sad  soul.  It  is  the  slogan  of 
victory.  It  is  not  an  announcement  of  failure,  but 
a  declaration  of  success.  Paul  is  not  posting  a 
notice  of  bankruptcy.  He  is  advertising  an  invest¬ 
ment  that  will  pay  increasing  dividends  forever. 
He  is  not  plunged  into  regret,  but  thrilled  with 
the  ecstasy  of  joy.  He  is  not  asking  for  sympathy. 
He  is  inviting  congratulations. 

The  Successful  Man 

When  is  a  man  successful?  To  find  the  right 
answer  to  that  question,  one  must  keep  in  mind 
what  man  is.  He  is  more  than  a  refined  and  highly 
trained  animal.  He  was  made  in  God's  image. 
He  has  self-consciousness  and  will-power,  aspira¬ 
tions  and  appetites  and  longings  higher  than  the 
highest  heaven.  He  has  powers  that  function  in  a 
realm  beyond  the  senses.  He  is  a  spirit,  and  he 
clamours  for  communion  with  God.  He  possesses 
an  influence  that  reaches  out  in  subtle  lines  to  shape 
other  lives.  He  has  capacities  for  enjoyment  and 
possibilities  of  development  which  only  God  can 
satisfy. 

When  is  such  a  creature  successful?  Evidently 
man  is  in  a  bigger  business  than  earning  a  living. 
He  must  do  this,  of  course.  He  must  live.  He 
needs  bread  and  clothing  and  a  roof  over  his  head. 


154  THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER 


His  body  insists  on  attention.  Its  clamour  at  times 
becomes  so  loud  that  it  drowns  other  voices. 
Nevertheless,  man  is  living  a  life,  and  life  is  more 
than  meat. 

He  is  in  a  bigger  business  than  having  a  good 
time.  There  is  nothing  wrong  in  enjoying  life. 
Pleasure  is  not  only  a  legitimate  pursuit,  but  man 
is  built  so  that  recreation  is  essential  to  develop¬ 
ment.  He  has  forgotten  too  much  who  forgets 
how  to  be  happy,  who  permits  his  laughing  muscles 
to  atrophy.  But  man  needs  more  than  a  program 
of  pleasure. 

He  is  in  a  bigger  business  than  making  money. 
The  rich  men  of  the  world  sadly  tell  us  that  wealth 
is  not  success.  It  is  hard  to  get,  harder  to  keep. 
It  fails  to  satisfy  and  often  brings  many  troubles 
in  its  train.  One  of  the  richest  men  on  earth  sadly 
remarked  to  a  friend  of  mine:  “  I  believe  the  world 
will  feel  more  kindly  toward  me  in  years  to  come 
than  it  does  now.”  His  heart  yearned  for  some¬ 
thing  worth  more  than  a  billion  dollars.  He  longed 
for  the  love  and  esteem  of  his  fellows. 

Man  is  in  a  bigger  business  than  getting  up  and 
on,  than  acquiring  notoriety  and  publicity,  than 
securing  position  and  power.  “  Uneasy  lies  the 
head  that  wears  a  crown.”  Fame  has  always  been 
a  failure  as  a  happiness-producer. 

One  must  get  past  these  things  for  the  right  an¬ 
swer  to  the  question.  He  must  get  to  God.  Au¬ 
gustine  had  the  secret  when  he  said,  “  O  Lord, 


THE  WOELD’S  GEEATEST  PEEACHEE  155 


Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thyself,  and  our  hearts  are 
restless  until  they  find  rest  in  Thee.”  No  man  is 
successful  who  leaves  God  out  of  his  life.  Real 
success  is  to  be  sought  in  the  realm  of  the  spiritual, 
for  man  is  essentially  a  spiritual  being.  He  may 
be  successful  everywhere  else,  but  if  he  is  a  failure 
in  the  thing  God  meant  him  to  be,  he  has  failed. 
He  may  have  succeeded  as  a  mere  animal,  but  he  is 
a  failure  as  an  immortal  spirit. 

Paul  succeeded.  No  one  questions  that  state¬ 
ment  now,  but  he  claimed  success  when  everyone 
said  he  was  a  failure,  when  society  branded  him 
as  a  fool  because  he  went  out  to  make  his  life 
count  for  God,  and  for  God’s  sake  lost  everything. 
He  had  much  to  lose,  no'  man  more,  but  he  turned 
his  back  on  it  all.  He  gave  up  everything,  posi¬ 
tion,  power,  political  ambition,  public  esteem,  ease, 
comfort,  worldly  emoluments,  all.  He  declares  he 
made  no  mistake.  He  is  glad  he  did  it.  He  boasts 
about  it.  It  was  the  greatest  act  of  his  life. 

What  things  were  gain  to  me,  those  I  counted 
loss  for  Christ;  yea,  doubtless,  and  I  count  all 
things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge 
of  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord.” 

God  Must  Come  First 

If  one  would  be  successful,  he  must  give  God 
the  right  of  way  in  his  life.  He  must  settle  his 
life-work  facing  the  question:  How  can  I  best 
make  my  life  count  for  God?  Because  man  is 


156  THE  WORLD'S  GREATEST  PREACHER 


built  along  religious  lines.  He  may  deny  God,  but 
the  very  denial  is  itself  a  recognition  of  God.  Man 
is  hopelessly  and  forever  religious.  An  irreligious 
man  is  incomplete.  He  is  a  defective,  perhaps 
not  in  body  or  mind,  but  in  soul.  One  may  be 
well  developed  physically,  and  even  mentally,  and 
at  the  same  time  have  the  spiritual  development  of 
an  infant. 

Making  life  count  for  God  makes  all  one  does 
count.  It  invests  deeds  with  value.  It  is  easy  to 
waste  time,  but  the  time  spent  in  doing  what  God 
wants  done  is  never  wasted.  The  efforts  and 
talents  and  money  invested  in  His  work  are  in¬ 
vestments  whose  value  can  never  depreciate. 
Nothing  done  for  Him  can  ever  fail.  “  Be  ye 
therefore  stedfast,  unmovable,  always  abounding 
in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  forasmuch  as  ye  know 
that  your  labour  is  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord.”  This 
business  is  the  only  business  in  which  it  is  impos¬ 
sible  to  fail. 

Making  life  count  for  God  underwrites  itself. 
The  best  way  to  keep  out  of  evil  is  to  be  occupied 
with  the  good.  The  easiest  way  to  banish  dark¬ 
ness  is  to  strike  a  light.  If  a  young  man  has  a 
special  weakness,  the  way  to  conquer  it  is  to  make 
his  life  count  for  God.  If  he  is  cursed  by  some 
bad  habit,  the  easiest  way  to  whip  the  devil  is  to 
get  busy  in  God’s  work.  I  know  a  woman  who 
said  she  married  a  preacher  to  keep  from  going  to 
the  devil.  It  was  perhaps  not  the  loftiest  plane 


THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER  157 


on  which  to  conduct  a  matrimonial  venture,  but 
when  God  lives  within,  the  devil  rings  life’s  door¬ 
bell  in  vain. 

It  is  not  only  the  safest,  but  the  most  satisfying 
life.  Here  is  the  secret  of  peace  and  joy.  Paul 
had  lost  everything,  but  he  was  not  miserable.  He 
was  jubilant.  The  Christian  who  makes  his  life 
count  for  God  has  scored  the  goal  of  happiness. 
The  business  that  makes  life  bigger  and  better,  that 
invests  all  that  one  does  with  value,  that  is  safe 
and  satisfying,  and  that  wins  the  approval  of  Him 
“  Whose  we  are  and  Whom  we  serve  ”  can  never 
be  called  a  failure;  if  success  is  within  the  reach 
of  mortal,  it  is  here. 

Within  Reach  of  All 

This  kind  of  success  is  within  the  reach  of  us 
all.  If  one  runs  for  office,  he  may  not  be  elected. 
If  he  goes  into  business,  he  may  lose  money.  If 
he  goes  in  for  a  good  time,  he  may  come  out 
broken  in  health  and  fortune.  But  if  his  ambition 
is  to  make  his  life  count  for  God,  the  commissioner 
in  bankruptcy  will  never  nail  a  card  on  his  door. 

It  is  a  business  that  requires  neither  a  big  capital 
nor  a  great  opportunity.  Anyone  anywhere  can 
make  his  life  count  for  God.  One  day  a  poor 
woman  with  two  mites  made  a  gift  into  the  Lord’s 
treasury.  She  might  have  spent  it  for  some  neces¬ 
sity.  She  might  have  bought  a  loaf  of  bread  for 
a  hungry  child.  But  she  made  it  count  for  God, 


158  THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER 


and  statistics  fail  to  total  the  staggering  returns 
from  her  gift.  One  day  some  fishermen  on  Galilee 
left  their  boats  and  nets  to  make  their  lives  count 
for  God,  and  became  the  leaders  of  the  world.  One 
night  a  woman  broke  an  alabaster  box  of  ointment 
on  Jesus,  and  the  angels  in  heaven  have  been  talk¬ 
ing  about  it  ever  since. 

Every  day  is  rich  in  opportunity  when  one 
would  make  his  life  count  for  God.  There  are 
never  any  hard  times  in  this  business.  One  needs 
only  to  be  genuine,  and  the  career  starts,  and  life 
bears  fruit.  The  story  is  told  that  two  newsboys 
were  talking  about  Theodore  Roosevelt  the  day  he 
died.  One  of  them  sadly  said  to  the  other:  “  Now 
he  is  dead  and  I  can  never  vote  for  him.”  His 
companion  replied:  “  Naw,  but  you  can  be  like 
him.”  Think  of  what  a  living  personality  throb¬ 
bing  with  the  life  of  God  may  do.  It  is  amazing 
what  one  of  ordinary  gifts  may  accomplish  whose 
single  aim  is  to  make  his  life  count  for  God.  It 
lifts  him.  It  lifted  Paul.  It  threw  him  out  on 
human  history  forever.  Every  young  man  must 
decide  what  he  is  to  do  with  his  life,  whether  he 
will  invest  it  or  spend  it.  Solomon  had  all  the 
world  could  give.  He  died  with  a  wail  of  pessi¬ 
mism  on  his  lips.  “  Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  van¬ 
ity  !  ”  Paul  lost  everything.  He  died  shouting 
victory.  “  I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  fin¬ 
ished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the  faith.” 


THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER  159 


Making  Life  Count  for  Mankind 

In  his  letter  to  the  Romans,  Paul  wrote:  “  I 
am  debtor.”  He  could  never  have  written  such  a 
line  but  for  the  fact  that  he  was  an  enthusiast.  I 
do  not  mean  that  he  was  hysterical  and  over- 
emotional,  although  some  people  might  so  regard 
him.  There  are  those  who  say  that  a  man  who 
had  Paul’s  chance  and  who  acted  as  he  did  was  a 
fool. 

As  a  young  man,  his  worldly  prospects  were 
considerable.  He  could  have  gotten  almost  any¬ 
thing  he  went  after.  But  something  happened, 
and  he  gave  up  the  chase  for  power  and  worldly 
eminence,  and  became  an  enthusiast.  No  doubt 
many  of  his  friends  thought  the  man  had  gone 
crazy,  but  no  one  who  reads  Paul’s  letters  and 
studies  his  life  can  reach  the  conclusion  that  he 
was  mentally  unbalanced. 

He  was  a  man  who  had  gotten  God’s  conception 
of  what  life  is  for.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the 
word  “  enthusiasm.”  Its  root  significance  in  the 
original  is  “  full  of  the  God.”  He  was  a  man  into 
whose  life  had  flowed  the  tides  of  God  until  he 
saw  life  through  God’s  eyes,  and  measured  values 
according  to  God’s  standard,  and  determined  duty 
according  to  God’s  definition. 

Is  it  a  small  man  who  does  this?  Is  one  weak 
who  tries  to  build  his  life  according  to  God’s  plan? 
Is  he  riding  for  a  fall  who  determines  to  invest 
himself  according  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus?  Is 


160  THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER 


he  a  fool  for  being  an  enthusiast?  People  may 
not  answer  these  questions  alike,  but  one  who  is 
honestly  striving  to  settle  aright  the  question  of 
his  life-work  and  follow  a  career  of  greatest  useful¬ 
ness  to  his  fellow-men  may  with  profit  sit  down  in 
front  of  Paul’s  life  and  try  to  take  his  measures. 

A  Debtor 

Paul  considered  himself  a  debtor, — not  a  cred¬ 
itor,  but  a  debtor,  not  a  man  who  had  things 
owing  to  him,  but  a  man  who  owed  all  that  he  had 
or  could  ever  have,  and  who  proposed  to  spend  his 
life  trying  to  pay  his  debts.  This  was  his  concep¬ 
tion  of  life.  He  felt  that  he  was  in  the  world  not 
to  see  what  he  could  get  out  of  it,  but  to  see  what 
he  could  put  into  it,  not  what  he  could  make  people 
do  for  him,  but  what  he  could  do  for  them,  not 
how  much  he  could  accumulate  and  leave  at  his 
death,  but  how  much  good  he  could  do,  how  much 
service  he  could  render.  His  program  was  altru¬ 
istic.  Had  he  been  a  millionaire  he  would  have  be¬ 
come  a  philanthropist,  but  being  a  poor  man  he 
capitalized  himself  and  became  a  preacher. 

Is  this  a  bad  way  to  look  at  life?  Is  it  weak 
and  foolish  to  regard  life  as  an  obligation,  to  feel 
that  society  has  claims  upon  us,  to  conclude  that 
you  have  no  right  to  be  selfish,  to  seek  only  your 
own  happiness  and  the  well-being  of  your  family, 
and  to  leave  the  big  world  to  travel  the  same  road  ? 
In  order  to  be  practical  and  hard-headed,  must  one 


THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER  161 


return  to  the  law  of  the  jungle?  Is  civilization, 
after  all,  just  a  refined  method  of  being  a  beast? 

The  question  is  not  whether  one  should  pay  his 
honest  debts,  but  whether  there  may  not  be  debts 
which  have  never  been  recognized,  whether  there 
may  not  be  obligations  which  have  never  been 
honestly  faced,  whether  there  may  not  be  duties 
which  have  been  left  dishonoured  and  undone. 
There  are  probably  those  who  feel  that  the  world 
is  in  debt  to  them,  but  if  they  could  see  life  as  God 
sees  it,  they  would  begin  to  say  with  Paul :  “  I  am 
debtor.  Poor  fool  that  I  am,  I  have  been  counting 
my  wealth  and  measuring  my  crops  and  tearing 
down  my  barns  and  building  larger,  thinking  of 
what  I  own,  when  all  the  while  it  was  not  what  I 
own,  but  what  I  owe.” 

Creditors 

Paul  names  his  creditors.  He  says  that  he  is 
debtor  to  the  Greeks  and  the  Barbarians,  to  the 
wise  and  to  the  unwise,  to  the  people  of  his  class 
and  to  the  people  of  other  classes,  to  culture  and 
ignorance,  to  privilege  and  need,  to  those  who  are 
near  and  to  those  who  are  far.  He  is  debtor  to 
humanity.  He  is  taking  on  big  obligations.  They 
are  likely  to  bankrupt  him.  Prudence  would  cau¬ 
tion  him  and  say:  “  Paul,  you  would  best  go 
slow.  You  are  just  one  lone  man.  You  are  tak¬ 
ing  in  too  much  territory.  Your  enthusiasm  is 
carrying  you  beyond  bounds.  You  will  have  your 


162  THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER 


hands  full  attending  to  the  Greeks.  You  will  have 
plenty  to  do  at  home.  Why  worry  over  the  Bar¬ 
barians?  Why  load  yourself  down  with  impos¬ 
sible  duties  in  the  ends  of  the  earth?  ”  But  Paul 
was  the  kind  of  preacher  who  refused  to  repudiate 
his  debts.  He  said:  “  I  am  debtor  to  the  world.” 

There  are  those  who  are  willing  to  write  in  the 
Greeks,  but  they  balk  at  the  Barbarians.  They  are 
willing  to  pay  out  for  work  at  home,  but  they  de¬ 
cline  to  recognize  any  claims  that  can  be  made  on 
them  by  work  abroad.  They  will  contribute  for 
the  support  of  their  own  religious  privileges,  but 
not  a  cent  for  missions.  They  are  willing  to  pay 
out  that  they  may  worship  according  to  the  dictates 
of  their  own  conscience  the  Saviour  Who  died  for 
all  men,  and  Who  said :  “  Go  ye  into  all  the  world 
and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,”  but  if  the 
Barbarians  and  the  unwise  want  a  church  and  a 
Gospel  like  theirs,  let  them  foot  the  bill. 

In  a  certain  church  of  which  I  was  the  pastor, 
there  was  a  man  who  paid  all  of  his  church  dues 
and  contributions  for  the  entire  year  in  a  single 
check.  Across  the  face  of  the  check  he  always 
wrote:  “  Not  a  cent  for  foreign  missions.”  I  never 
cared  much  to  receive  his  gift.  It  looked  too  much 
like  tainted  money.  It  seemed  an  insult  to  the 
Christ  of  Calvary.  It  fell  to  my  lot  to  conduct 
this  man’s  funeral,  and  as  I  read  the  service  over 
him,  his  check  stood  out  before  me.  He  has  gone 
to  be  judged  by  the  Christ  Who  died  for  Barbarian 


THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER  163 


as  well  as  Greek.  I  wonder  what  he  thinks  of 
his  check  now  ? 

Can  we  ignore  the  Barbarians?  We  do  not  at¬ 
tempt  to  do  so  in  trade.  Can  we  leave  the  unwise 
to  go  to  the  devil,  and  amble  contentedly  up  the 
sunny  slopes  to  Paradise  ourselves?  Hunger  says: 
No.  Pestilence  says:  No.  War  says:  No.  Al¬ 
mighty  God  says  it  cannot  be  done.  “  None  of  us 
liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself.” 
Humanity  is  one.  It  is  like  a  great  sea.  The 
smallest  pebble  ripples  the  waters  to  the  farthest 
shore. 

We  must  admit  the  Barbarians  if  we  are  to 
preach  Christ’s  Gospel.  They  are  as  needy  as  the 
Greeks.  Unless  the  debt  to  them  be  paid,  there 
will  be  more  trouble.  Where  do  we  draw  our 
trade  line?  Not  at  the  front  gate,  not  at  our  city 
walls,  not  at  our  seaports.  We  are  out  to  make  a 
dollar  anywhere  we  can  under  the  wide  heavens. 
The  field  is  the  world.  We  must  make  our  debt 
line  as  wide  as  our  trade  line. 

Getting  in  Debt 

How  could  Paul  become  a  debtor  to  the  world? 
Multitudes  of  the  people  he  had  never  seen  and 
could  never  see.  They  do  not  know  that  there  is 
such  a  man  in  existence.  They  have  never  done 
anything  for  him.  They  do  not  carry  him  on  their 
books.  They  are  not  desirous  of  anything  he  has. 
All  they  ask  is  to  be  let  alone.  Why  not  let  them 


164  THE  WORLD'S  GREATEST  PREACHER 


alone?  Paul,  you  are  taking  yourself  too  seri¬ 
ously.  You  had  better  go  back  to  Tarsus  and  mind 
your  own  business.  It  is  nice  to  be  altruistic,  but 
one  need  not  be  foolish.  Paul  looked  at  the  matter 
from  a  different  standpoint.  What  was  it  that  led 
him  to  conclude  that  he  was  a  debtor  to  the  world  ? 

I  think  he  said  to  himself:  “  I  have  no  right  to 
live  a  selfish  life.  I  have  certain  rights,  but  among 
these  I  fail  to  find  the  right  to  be  self-centered  and 
exclusive.  Life  is  a  trust.  It  is  not  to  be  used, 
but  invested.  It  is  not  to  be  enjoyed,  but  spent. 
It  must  be  lived  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of 
the  trust.  This  makes  me  a  debtor.” 

He  also  got  a  vision  of  world  need.  Some  never 
see  this.  They  are  not  looking  for  it.  They  are 
looking  for  dividends.  They  are  planning  to  coin 
human  need  into  profits.  They  have  their  reward. 
Paul  caught  sight  of  a  world  in  trouble.  He  heard 
the  cries  of  woe.  He  saw  through  the  eyes  of 
Christ  when  Christ  saw  the  multitudes  as  sheep  not 
having  a  shepherd.  He  is  a  poor  preacher  whose 
eyes  are  blind  to  human  woe  and  suffering,  but  let 
him  catch  that  vision  and  he  must  recognize  his 
obligation. 

One  Sunday  morning  Isaac  Yonan  from  Ar¬ 
menia  stood  in  my  pulpit  and  told  the  story  of  his 
broken  nation.  Years  ago  he  had  been  associated 
with  the  church,  having  charge  for  a  year  of  one 
of  our  missions.  We  knew  he  was  genuine.  We 
believed  his  story.  He  plead  the  cause  of  the  starv- 


THE  WOELD’S  GEEATEST  PEEACHEE  165 


in g  children,  and  painted  the  picture  of  martyr¬ 
doms  the  like  of  which  perhaps  the  world  has  never 
seen.  The  next  day  one  of  the  church  officers 
met  me  on  the  street  and  said:  “  When  I  sat  down 
at  the  dinner  table  yesterday,  I  could  not  eat.  The 
food  choked  me.  I  could  not  get  away  from  the 
thought  of  those  starving,  dying  children  in 
Armenia.”  He  had  seen  the  vision.  It  was  not 
necessary  for  us  to  beg  him  to  give.  The  question 
with  him  was  not  how  little  but  how  much.  “  O 
God,  they  are  in  need.  They  are  dying.  I  must 
help.”  It  was  some  such  vision  that  made  Paul 
debtor. 

As  he  looked  he  saw  that  he  had  what  would 
meet  the  world’s  need.  That  increased  his  obliga¬ 
tion.  The  mere  fact  that  he  was  in  a  position  to 
do  something  loaded  him  down  with  responsibility. 
No  man  can  increase  his  wealth  without  increas¬ 
ing  his  obligation.  The  fact  that  you  are  in  a 
position  to  do  something  gets  God  after  you,  and 
if  one  should  try  to  shirk  or  evade  or  hide  out, 
sooner  or  later  he  must  reckon  with  God. 

Then  in  addition  to  all  else,  he  saw  One  hanging 
on  a  cross.  He  caught  sight  of  the  crucified 
Christ,  dying  with  the  nails  in  His  hands  and  feet, 
and  he  said :  “  I  cannot  go  back  to  the  old,  selfish 
life.  He  suffered  for  me.  I  am  not  my  own.  I 
belong  to  my  Saviour.  I  have  been  bought  with 
a  price.  What  things  were  gain  to  me,  these  I 
count  lost  for  Him.  I  am  debtor  both  to  the 


166  THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER 


Greeks  and  to  the  Barbarians,  both  to  the  wise  and 
to  the  unwise.”  Thus  Paul  got  into  debt. 

It  is  the  way  every  disciple  of  Christ  gets  into 
debt.  There  is  no  way  under  heaven  to  keep  out. 
Life  is  a  trust.  All  about  us  and  out  to  the  far¬ 
thest  skyline  is  a  world  in  need.  In  some  strange 
way  our  need  has  been  met,  and  we  hold  in  our 
hands  bread  for  the  hungry  and  the  cup  that  will 
slake  the  thirsty  world.  And  yonder  on  the  cross 
hangs  One  Who  said :  “  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it 
unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it  unto  me.” 
In  the  face  of  all  this,  shall  one  turn  back  and  say: 
“  It  is  none  of  my  business;  let  the  hungry  starve 
and  the  thirsty  die  ”  ?  If  we  do,  the  world  will 
condemn  us  and  the  needy  will  curse  us  and  God 
will  not  forget. 

Payment 

How  did  this  great  preacher  propose  to  pay  his 
debt  ?  Did  he  really  propose  to  pay  at  all  ?  Is  he 
not  just  talking?  It  is  one  thing  to  preach  and 
another  to  practice.  One  day  an  old  mountaineer 
came  to  the  rear  of  my  cottage  in  the  mountains 
where  I  was  engaged  in  some  task  on  the  place  and 
asked  me  if  I  was  Dr.  Vance.  Replying  in  the 
affirmative,  he  inquired  if  I  practiced  there  or  in 
Nashville.  He  evidently  thought  I  was  a  real 
doctor.  I  said:  “I  do  not  practice.  I  just 
preach.”  He  turned  on  his  heel  without  a  word, 
but  with  a  look  which  said:  “  It  is  not  always  safe 


THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER  167 


to  try  to  be  humorous  with  a  mountaineer/’  Is 
Paul  merely  preaching  when  he  calls  himself  a 
debtor  ?  Is  he  saying  a  brave  thing,  but  something 
that  he  does  not  intend  to  keep?  He  is  talking 
about  world  debts.  I  once  knew  a  preacher  who 
made  a  subscription  of  several  hundred  dollars  to 
a  church  enterprise,  but  when  called  on  for  pay¬ 
ment,  said :  “  Surely  you  do  not  expect  me  to  pay. 
I  merely  subscribed  to  encourage  others.”  Is 
this  what  Paul  is  doing?  What  did  that  little  Jew 
have  with  which  to  pay  a  world  debt? 

He  had  the  inexhaustible  riches  of  God.  He 
had  the  only  thing  with  which  to  meet  a  world 
obligation,  the  only  thing  that  would  satisfy  the 
needs  of  a  weary,  sinning,  fainting  world.  He 
had  the  Gospel.  This  is  the  payment  he  proposed 
to  make.  He  has  determined  to  spend  his  life 
proclaiming  the  Gospel.  Nothing  can  stop  him. 
No  cross  can  be  too  heavy,  no  hate  too  fierce,  no 
scourging  too  severe.  “  So  as  much  as  in  me  is, 
I  am  ready  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  you  that  are 
at  Rome  also.” 

This  is  the  payment.  Paul  does  not  plan  to 
open  a  park  or  start  a  philanthropy  or  endow  a 
college,  or  even  build  a  church.  All  of  this  would 
have  been  beautiful.  He  has  something  greater. 
He  will  preach  Christ.  This  is  what  the  world 
needed  most  then,  and  needs  most  now.  We  are 
coming  every  day  to  see  it  more  plainly.  Cautious, 
cool-headed  business  men  are  saying  that  the  Gospel 


168  THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER 


of  Christ  is  the  only  thing  that  will  save  the 
world,  that  what  society  needs  is  an  old-fashioned 
revival  of  religion. 

And  so  the  man  who  is  preaching  the  Gospel  is 
the  man  who  is  rendering  the  life  of  service  to 
mankind,  is  the  man  of  all  men  who  is  making 
the  biggest  contribution  toward  the  building  of 
the  new  world. 

These  are  the  two  pictures  of  the  world's  great¬ 
est  preacher.  In  seeking  to  make  his  life  count 
for  God,  Paul  went  as  far  as  man  can  go.  He 
became  a  bankrupt.  In  seeking  to  make  his  life 
count  for  men,  he  also  went  as  far  as  man  can  go. 
He  became  a  debtor.  It  is  the  same  face  that 
looks  out  in  both  pictures, — the  portrait  of  a 
preacher  who  gave  up  all,  who  held  back  nothing. 
The  greatest  of  preachers  was  one  who  from  the 
standpoint  of  material  values  had  the  world  under 
his  feet,  but  who  from  the  standpoint  of  spiritual 
values  carried  the  world  in  his  heart.  These  are 
the  measures  according  to  which  everyone  who 
would  become  truly  great  must  build  his  life. 

The  Result 

How  did  it  turn  out  ?  How  did  the  world  treat 
Paul  as  he  went  about  paying  his  debts?  What 
kind  of  reception  did  society  give  this  enthusiast 
who  had  lost  everything  for  God,  who  had  turned 
his  back  on  the  brightest  worldly  prospects  and 
determined  to  spend  himself  paying  his  debts? 


THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER  169 


One  day  he  is  in  Athens.  He  is  there  to  make  a 
payment.  He  gets  a  little  group  of  people  to¬ 
gether  on  Mars  Hill  and  preaches  the  Gospel. 
How  did  they  receive  it?  There  were  a  few  con¬ 
verts,  but  the  crowd  said  he  was  crazy,  a  mere 
babbler.  Paul  was  not  getting  famous  very  fast. 
Another  day  we  find  him  in  Lystra.  How  did  they 
receive  him?  Did  they  give  a  great  welcome  to 
this  unselfish  benefactor  who  has  come  to  bestow 
a  wonderful  blessing  on  the  city?  They  are  driv¬ 
ing  him  out  of  town.  They  are  stoning  him  to 
death.  He  falls  in  the  street.  They  drag  his 
apparently  lifeless  body  outside  the  town  and  throw 
it  on  the  ash-heap  and  leave  him  for  dead.  But 
Paul  climbs  to  his  feet  and  wipes  the  dirt  and 
blood  from  his  face  and  starts  on  to  make  another 
payment.  And  so  it  was  in  Corinth,  and  so  in 
Ephesus.  They  did  not  want  his  Gospel.  They 
wanted  him  to  clear  out.  Would  he  not  better 
quit  and  go  back  to  Tarsus?  One  day  we  find 
him  in  Rome.  He  is  in  prison  and  sick.  That 
was  a  queer  way  to  treat  a  philanthropist.  Paul, 
what  a  fool  you  have  been !  Give  up  your  dream 
and  leave  this  work  in  which  you  have  never  had 
anything  but  hardship  and  sorrow.  But  Paul 
never  wavered.  He  was  not  thinking  of  the 
crowd.  He  was  thinking  of  Christ,  of  his  greatest 
creditor,  and  through  it  all  was  getting  such  an 
experience  of  intimate  fellowship  with  his  Saviour 
that  he  could  say:  “  I  am  crucified  with  Christ.  I 


170  THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER ' 


bear  about  in  my  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.” 

We  must  not  measure  the  payment  by  the  grati¬ 
tude  of  men.  Sometimes  still  they  stone  the 
prophets  and  kill  those  who  are  sent  unto  them. 
Sometimes  the  preacher  is  tempted  to  ask:  What 
is  the  use?  But  if  faith  will  listen,  it  can  hear 
still  coming  over  the  pallid  lips  of  the  crucified 
Christ  the  old  words:  “  Go  ye  into  all  the  world 
and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature.” 

“  Men  see  thee,  hear  thee,  praise  thee  not, 

The  Master  praises ;  what  are  men  ?  ” 

And  now  the  time  has  come  for  Paul  to  render 
his  account.  He  is  standing  before  his  Master. 
What  will  Christ  say  to  him?  Will  He  say: 
“  Paul,  what  have  been  your  profits,  your  divi¬ 
dends?  How  much  are  you  worth?  You  have 
had  some  wonderful  opportunities  for  investment. 
You  have  been  up  and  down  the  earth.  You  have 
travelled  across  the  seas.  Did  you  keep  an  eye 
open  for  good  investments?  Come,  render  an  ac¬ 
count  of  your  stewardship  ”  ?  And  Paul  tells  his 
story.  “  Of  the  Jews  five  times  received  I  forty 
stripes  save  one;  thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods; 
once  was  I  stoned;  thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck;  a 
night  and  a  day  I  have  been  in  the  deep ;  in  journey- 
ings  often,  in  perils  of  waters,  in  perils  of  robbers, 
in  perils  of  mine  own  countrymen,  in  perils  by  the 
heathen,  in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the  wilder- 


THE  WORLD’S  GREATEST  PREACHER  171 


ness,  in  perils  in  the  sea,  in  perils  among  false 
brethren,  in  weariness  and  painfulness,  in  watch¬ 
ings  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fastings  often, 
in  cold  and  nakedness.” 

I  think  I  can  hear  the  Saviour  say:  “  Paul,  it  is 
glorious;  it  sounds  just  like  Calvary.  And  I  knew 
all  about  it,  for  I  never  once  left  your  side,  but  I 
wanted  to  hear  you  tell  it.  I  was  with  you  through 
it  all.  I  was  an  hungered  and  ye  gave  me  meat; 
I  was  thirsty  and  ye  gave  me  drink;  I  was  a 
stranger  and  ye  took  me  in,  naked  and  ye  clothed 
me ;  I  was  sick  and  ye  visited  me ;  I  was  in  prison, 
and  when  you  went  to  jail,  it  was  just  that  you 
might  be  with  me.” 

When  Paul  heard  that,  I  do  not  think  he  was 
sorry  that  he  had  spent  his  life  trying  to  pay  his 
debt.  It  is  not  the  receipt  that  is  the  great  thing. 
It  is  the  payment,  and  the  payment  that  counts  is 
the  payment  that  costs. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


HELPFUL  SERMONS 


JAMES I.  VANCE ,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Pastor  First  Presbyterian  Church ,  Nashville ,  Tenn. 

In  the  Breaking  of  the  Bread 

Communion  Addresses.  $1.25. 

“A  volume  of  communion  addresses  marked  by  deep 
spiritual  insight  and  knowledge  of  the  human  heart.  They 
are  well  adapted  to  awaken  the  spiritual  conceptions  which 
should  accompany  the  observance  of  the  Lord’s  Supper — 
suggestions  fitted  for  a  communion  occasion.  The  ad¬ 
dresses  all  bear  upon  the  general  theme  of  the  Lord’s  Sup¬ 
per  and  showed  marked  spirituality  of  thought  and  fervency 
of  expression.” — United  Presbyterian. 


TEUNIS  E.  GOUWENS  Pastor  Second  Presbyterian 
.  Church,  Louisville,  Ky, 

The  Rock  That  Is  Higher 

And  Other  Addresses.  $1.25. 

An  unusually  successful  volume  of  discourses  of  which 
Dr.  Charles  S.  Macfarland  of  the  Church  Federal  Council, 
says:  “Contents  the  intellect  because  it  first  satisfies  the 
heart,  and  commands  the  incontestable  assent  of  human 

experience .  As  I  have  read  it  I  have  found  my 

conscience  penetrated,  my  faith  deepened  and  my  hopo 
quickened.” 


W.  RUSSELL  BOWIE t  D.D. 

Rector  of  St.  Paul’s  Church,  Richmond,  V<K 

The  Road  of  the  Star 

and  Other  Sermons.  $1.50. 

A  volume  of  addresses  which  bring  the  message  of 
Christianity  with  fresh  and  kindling  interpretation  to  the 
immediate  needs  of  men.  The  extraordinary  distinction 
of  Dr.  Bowie’s  preaching  rises  from  the  fact  that  to 
great  vigor  of  thought  he  has  added  the  winged  power  of 
an  imagination  essentially  poetic. 

JOSEPH  JUDSON  TAYLOR ,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Author  of  “  The  Sabbatic  Question “  The  God  of  War ,”  etc. 

Radiant  Hopefulness 

$1.00. 

A  message  of  enheartenment,  a  word  of  cheer,  for  men 
and  women  whose  hearts  have  been  fearful,  whose  spirits 
have  been  shaken  in  the  turbulent  times  through  which 
the  world  has  passed  in  recent  years,  with  which  man¬ 
kind  still  finds  itself  faced.  In  this  volume  of  addresses, 
Dr.  Taylor  points  the  way  to  comfort  amid  confusion,  to 
peaceful  harborage  amid  the  prevailing  storm. 


EVANGELISTIC  WORK 


QZORA  H.  DAVIS,  D.D. 

President  Chicago  Theological  Seminary. 

Preaching  the  Social  Gospel 

$1.50. 

The  new  book  by  the  author  of  “Evangelistic  Preach¬ 
ing”  is  the  next  hook  every  preacher  should  read.  As  a 
high  authority  recently  said  “Every  preacher  needs  to 
read  books  on  preaching  and  the  problems  of  preaching 
and  should  read  one  such  book  every  year.”  It  would  be 
difficult  to  find  a  book  that  fits  this  need  better  than  this 
latest  work  of  President  Davis’. 


J.  WILBUR  CHAPMAN ,  D.D. 

Evangelistic  Sermons 

Edited  and  Compiled  by  Edgar  Whitaker 
Work,  D.D.,  with  Frontispiece.  $1.50. 

Strong,  fervid  gospel  addresses,  eminently  character¬ 
istic  of  one  of  the  great  evangelists  of  his  time.  Dr. 
Work  has  used  his  editorial  prerogatives  with  pronounced 
skill.  As  a  result  every  paragraph  is  reminiscent  of 
Dr.  Chapman,  and  from  every  page  of  the  book  one 
seems  to  hear  again  the  voice  and  compelling  message 
of  one  who  while  living  preached  to  possibly  as  many 
people  as  any  man  of  his  generation,  who  “being  dead 
yet  speaketh.” 

LOUIS  ALBERT  BANKS ,  D.  D. 

Author  o/“  Thirty -one  Revival  Sermons ” 

The  New  Ten  Commandments 

and  Other  Sermons.  $1.50. 

Strong,  stirring  Gospel  addresses  reflecting  the  true 
evangelical  note,  Dr.  Banks’  latest  volume,  fully  main¬ 
tains  his  impressive,  picturesque  style  of  presentation. 
Apt  quotation,  fitting  illustration,  drawn  from  literature 
and  human  life  give  point  and  color  to  his  work,  which 
is  without  a  dull  or  meaningless  page. 

FRANK  CHALMERS  McKEAN ,  A.M.,  D.D. 

The  Magnetism  of  Mystery 

and  Other  Sermons 

Introduction  by  J.  A.  Marquis,  D.D.  $1.25 

Dr.  John  A.  Marquis  says:  “Dr.  McKean’s  sermons  are 
shafts  with  points,  and  he  hurls  them  with  vigor  and  sure¬ 
ness.  They  will  be  read  with  interest,  not  only  for  what 
they  are  in  themselves,  but  as  types  of  the  pulpit  ministry 
that  is  making  the  Church  of  the  Middle  West.” 


TIMELY  ESSAYS  AND  STUDIES 


NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS 

Author  of  “Great  Books  as  Life-Teachers.** 

Great  Men  as  Prophets  of  a  New  Era 

$1. 50- 

Dr.  Hillis’  latest  book  strikes  a  popular  chord.  It 
fairly  pulses  with  life  and  human  sympathy.  He  has 
a  large  grasp  of  things  and  relations,  a  broad  culture, 
a  retentive  memory  and  .  splendid  imagination,  and  there 
are  few  writers  to-day  with  so  large  an  audience  assured 
in  advance.  The  subjects  include:  Dante;  Savonarola; 
William  the  Silent;  Oliver  Cromwell;  John  Wesley;  John 
Milton;  Garibaldi;  John  Ruskin,  etc. 


THOS.  R.  MITCHELL ,  M.A.,  B.D. 

The  Drama  of  Life 

A  Series  of  Reflections  on  Shakespeare’s 
“Seven  Ages”  Introduction  by  Nellie  L.  McClung. 

$I.2,5. 

A  fresh,  stimulating  discussion  of  old  themes.  Mr. 
Mitchell  handles  his  subject  with  unusual  directness, 
bringing  to  its  discussion  clarity  of  thought  and  lucidity 
of  expression  which  has  already  won  the  enthusiastic 
endorsement  of  Sir  William  Robertson  Nicoll,  Chas.  W. 
Gordon,  D.D.,  (Ralph  Connor)  Archdeacon  Cody  and 
Prof.  Francis  G.  Peabody. 

D,  MACDOUGALL  KING ,  M.B. 

Author  of  “The  Battle  with  Tuberculosis** 

Nerves  and  Personal  Power 

Some  Principles  of  Psychology  as  Applied  to 
Conduct  and  Health.  With  Introduction  by  Hon. 
W.  L.  Mackenzie  King.  $2.00 

Premier  King  says:  “My  brother  has,  I  think  helped 
to  reinforce  Christian  teaching  by  showing  wherein  recent 
medical  and  scientific  researches  are  revealing  the  founda¬ 
tions  of  Christian  faith  and  belief  in  directions  hitherto 
unexplored  and  unknown. — The  world  needs  the  assurance 
this  book  can  scarcely  fail  to  bring.” 


REV.  R.  E.  SMITH 


Waco,  Texas. 


Christianity  and  the  Race  Problem 

$1.25. 

A  sane,  careful  study  of  the  Race  problem  in  the  South, 
written  by  a  born  Southerner,  the  son  of  a  slave-owner 
and  Confederate  soldier.  Mr.  Smith  has  lived  all  his 
life  among  negroes,  and  feels  that  he  is  capable  of  seeing 
both  sides  of  the  problem  he  undertakes  to  discuss. 


INSPIRATION  AND  SELF-HELP 


CHARLES  E.  JEFFERSON ,  D.D. 

Under  Twenty 

Messages  to  Big  Boys  and  Girls.  $1.50. 

Clothed  in  direct  and  simple  language,  Dr.  Jefferson’s 
messages  to  young  folk  enshrine  truths  of  the  highest 
import,  and  point  towards  the  attainment  of  life’s  highest 
ideals.  Out  of  his  rich  treasure-house,  he  brings  forth 
“things  both  new  and  old.”  He  is  an  acknowledged 
master  of  clear,  unmistakable  presentation,  which  finds 
ample  expression  in  this  admirable  series  of  addresses. 

JOHN  T.  FARIS ,  D.D. 

Men  Who  Conquered 

$1.25 

The  new  volume  in  “Making  Good  Series”  contains 
many  hints  on  how  to  gain  real  success  from  the  lives 
of  men  of  modern  days,  such  as  William  E.  Dodge, 
Jacob  Riis,  Charles  A.  Eastman,  Isaac  Pitman,  George 
W.  Childs,  John  Muir,  etc. 

ARTHUR  E.  ROBERTS 

Scout  Executive,  Cincinnati  Council,  Boy 
Scouts  of  America . 

Emancipation  of  Youth 

$1.00. 

Beginning  with  the  belief  that  most  lads  come  into 
the  world  possible  of  being  directed  and  developed  into 
lives  of  normalcy  and  usefulness,  Mr.  Roberts  proceeds 
to  discuss  such  aspects  of  his  subject  as:  Mind-mak¬ 
ing;  Heredity;  Bases  of  Habit;  Periods  of  Growth; 
the  Attitude  and  Influence  of  the  Church,  the  School 
and  the  Home  of  the  Boy;  Adolescence  and  Leisure. 
James  E.  West,  Chief  Scout  Executive  (N.  Y.),  says: 
“I  am  quite  enthusiastic  over  it.  It  is  thoroughly  sound 
— decidedly  worth  while.” 

HOWARD  BEMENT  Professor^  of  ^English, 

1  ■  The  Htll  School. 

Old  Man  Dare’s  Talks  to  College  Men 

75c. 

“Old  Man  Dare”  is  not  an  elderly  person.  The  quali¬ 
fying  adjective  betokens,  not  age  but  affection  and  respect 
felt  for  him  by  a  number  of  College  classmen  to  whom 
he  gave  a  series  of  simple,  unaffected  talks  such  as  may 
be  held  as  likely  to  stimulate  a  lively  sense  of  fair  play, 
promote  honorable,  dealing,  develop  character  and  a  cor¬ 
responding  revulsion  for  mean,  shabby  conduct  which 
falls  below  the  standard  of  a  man.  These  sane,  straight 
talks  of  “Old  Man  Dare”  form  the  contents  of  this 
present  volume. 


9^  .  ‘h  Au&ttt'-  ■ 

aq 


V 


» 


Date  Due 

Mr  2  0  ^ 

Wf  :  i  ft 

JY  2  j  ’5:- 

MY  1  n’Ra. 

2  3 '55 

. . mi 

& 

imHr*!gT 

St 

mm . I'—1 1 

f) 

